http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/ Engadget Comments for Intel chairman harshes on MIT's OLPC http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2008 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
I'm willing to bet that it's the latter.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
He wins corporate dickhead of the month award.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Harp all you want on this guy for his comments, but anyone who thinks throwing a product at a social ill-- however good that product is-- is very, very wrong. And in this case, dangerous, because misguided concepts can have lots of sway and money following them. The road to good intentions... is often followed by the road to "hm... why didn't that work...?"]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Barrett's running a corporation, so he has to say these kinds of things that don't make sense to engineer-type people. Non-engineer type people will hear a different message: buy our stuff, it's better than theirs. It's marketing baloney, and we know it.

Second: Rick, I think you're misunderstanding something fundamental about the $100 laptop. The fact of the matter is, there is a segment of the population with access to technology and information, and there is a (larger) segment without this access. The rift between the two will only continue to grow unless something is done about it, because technology's progress just isn't going to go away. We can pretend that this progress is somehow "bad" for us, but we shouldn't keep this away from others who could use it.

Negroponte, Alan Kay & Co. are doing something about the rift. This program is not meant to replace efforts to improve developing countries' political structures, it's meant to augment and aid that process. Without access to information, you can't very well do much, either.

Boris

]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
the rest of the world demands access to world of warcraft... you think they are going to be able to run it on an dinky olpc?]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
The only thing holding up his smile in that pic are the hundred dollar bills shoved in his cheeks.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Some rich westerner with the 21st century equivalent of 'Let them eat cake' is plain insulting.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
This laptop is only a tool. Power structures are maaintained by their openness and management of such tools. This laptop is a great idea...if.

If people can actually get their hands on it and use it in a real way. This is not the first tool that seems to be made available to the underprivileged in the last 100 years. Yet we all fall for the symbolism over substance of such an event/issue-- let's see where this actually goes.

Unfortunately, past behavior is the best measure of future behavior. What makes people think that just creating such a device means any meaningful change?

For God' sake, food actually does grow on trees and yet people starve.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
I also agree with #6, this is one of the best posts to engadget.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Now, this customer wants a full featured laptop or desktop... and not only that: They want branded PCs. The rationale goes like this: There are knock-off Nokia phones made in Brazil, yet the market wants the full Nokia phone. Nokia made it, and still, despite no innovation and getting ass kicked by the press, still numero 1.

There are no-name chinesse PCs but they have heard of the cousing living in New York having a Dell. So they want a Dell.

Americans always believe that only Japan, Europe and the US crave brands. You are poor so you don't deserve quality. They don't realize that being poor does not mean being a fool.

I tell you now what the decent solution is: A machine running Windows 98 with Office 95 with a first Generation PIII processor and 512RAM and 40GB HD, priced with credit of 6-months at $25 a month. That would make it around $200, and it is possible. Lets call it the Aspirin PC, because you can sell any no-name Aspirin here, but if it is not from Bayer, no poor clement will buy it.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Is anyone here prepared to argue that this was not what people needed at the time? That it was just the political structures that needed fixing?

Boris
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
They are not going to be selling the $100 PCs, but donating them with the help of wealthy (American) donors, who will donate the the cost of the computer, so that it can be shipped to the target nation. OLPC is not trying to fill a "market", whether it's in Brazil or elsewhere, it simply is not a business at all, but a charity.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Invoking Kofi Annan's support (like thats a good thing) only serves to remind us of the corruption of the UN.

Barrett may have $100 bills shoved in his cheeks but at least its not blood money.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

Shame on him, if he has such a problem with the way it is going why doesn't Intel kick in $200B to bring down the cost of a more sophisticed device... Give a little back you prick!
I stop here because All I have left in the vocab on this subject is profanities]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Reminds me of George H. W. Bush's famous comment about understanding the pain of unemployment because he'd had to lay off people before. The public won't let Barrett off the hook for being insensitive any more than they let Bush explain what he really meant on that one.
]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
I initially had a skeptical reaction to the program - before I heard Alan Kay give a talk on it (just this Monday, as a matter of fact).

The issues that you and others raise are certainly legitimate, but Kay & Co have also thought of them. Would we expect any less from the creative minds at the Media Lab and from the man who envisioned this sort of device in the 1960's?

Kay & Co. are engineers with an enormous amount of ingenuity and are used to solving very difficult problems. I think the fact that they've chosen this particular problem to solve, rather than jumping on the ever-more-popular idea bandwagon that free markets will somehow take care of all of this, is laudable. I think this sort of idealism is almost dead.

Something tells me that we wouldn't be having this discussion if it were books that were being made accessible. Well, the $100 laptop is just that - it's a gazillion books, and interactive. Not "interactive" the way MS edu-tainment is labeled. "Interactive" in the sense that it's a full-fledged programming and learning environment based on SmallTalk, i.e. you really can do just about anything with it.

And it's durable, unlike clunky Win98/Pentium III boxes otherwise destined for the junk heap in the first world. Also read the FAQ on the Media Lab's $100 Laptop site for a good explanation of why the Win98/PIII box doesn't work for this. What do you do when that Win98/PIII fails? Call Dell support? The $100 Laptop is designed to be durable the way no desktop or laptop currently is.

I encourage each of you reading Engadget to inform yourself on this subject before forming an opinion based on short online articles. Knee-jerk reactions are easy to have on this topic. You are the type of person who should be supporting this effort, not opposing it.

Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
No one argues the laptops are bad. Just be reasonable about how you look at them. They're not enterting the world as a clean slate, but as one more "ray of hope." If they work to change anything, it will be despite those governments' best efforts.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Poster #5 is correct - these people need political - and business and economic structures that work.
And the last thing they need is U.N. "support".]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/But then, it's not just intel's CEO, what about the guy that runs Verizon? Saying people shouldn't expect reception in their homes? Why shouldn't they? And why don't you want them to have it, so they use YOUR network more (since people talk on the phone at home quite a bit). And then they go and cripple their phones, because they'd rather make a buck than give their customers what they paid for.
I'm fully convinced now that power doesn't corrupt people's morals, it just makes them so damn ignorant and stupid that they can't think properly. I'm really afraid of what will become of me if I ever become the CEO I'm planning on being...
-Taylor]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Negroponte isn't the only person behind this. There are others, such as Alan Kay, with extensive experience in pedagogy working on this problem. Negroponte is the head of the Media Lab, not just the $100 Laptop Program.

Giving the disenfranchised access to information is the equivalent of arming the masses - change doesn't just come from the top.

I have the feeling that if you want to prevent a program from being supported in the US and elsewhere, you just have to associate it with the U.N. How sad, since there's really potentially to do good there, as well.

Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
As for Barrett, why doesn't he put his money where his mouth is and start up his own program with "real" laptops.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/While it is true that giving the poor new PCs won't fix all the problems of their impoverished nations, I doubt that is a claim that MIT ever made. So you are wandering off on a tangent w/ a bullwhip in search of a horse to flog as far as I can tell. I think at the very least it will give them the ability to teach themselves how these things operate and maybe be able to actually make some $. Also, the most recent spect I've seen say that when they are in wi-fi range of each other they'll form a networking grid to allow some parrallel processing and whatnot. Sounds exciting to me!]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
http://michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute_id=170]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Engadget guys you say that this guy is "a multi-millionaire businessmen yammering on about what the world’s poor really want" while you fail to realize that Negroponte is going to make BILLIONS in revenue because his companies are the ones making these OLPCs. The OLPC is a noble idea from an un-noble guy. He doesn't give a crap about starving kids in Africa, he's just trying to make a buck off of a seemingly chivalrous con.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
That is simply not true, I don't know where you got that. Negroponte and his associates won't be making these, they won't even be in the money loop. Sponsor money will go directly to the manufacturers and they were VERY clear about this - there is no collusion.]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
who says Negroponte is the one behind this?

And Binford - that article is interesting, but not necessarily correct (who is ignorant now?).

We've been taught that Wintel is the best the world has to offer - the product of a superior system (our capitalist system), blah, blah, blah. It used to be that computer scientists understood this not to be the case. In recent years, I think the tide has shifted a little towards simple acceptance rather than trying to come up with something better.

The notion that just because a piece of computing hardware doesn' have the 2GB RAM required to run windows apps (I've got 2GB in mine, it's not enough for what I do with it) it's a "stump" rather than fully capable is ridiculous.

Linux & Co. were born and became popular because of a monopolistic situation. Competition within the system wasn't possible, so it had to come from outside.

Corporations have a vested interest in keeping you from switching platforms, be it you or children who currently don't have access. Why pretend that Barrett's motives are otherwise?

It's sad that so many equate computing with just one hardware or software vendor, but I suppose it's inevitable. It's up to the computing engineers to re-educate people and remind them that this isn't the case, and that no one owns knowledge.

Boris

]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
I'm not sure where you're coming from exactly or what is has to do with the subject. How does Live Aid relate to this, exactly? How is this throwing money at the issue? How are money and computers the same thing?

New idea: "Let's make books accessible to people who don't have them. Good or bad idea?"

Discuss!

Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
I am talking about the right market: The poor know they are poor, crappy products... to ratify that, well you are poor.

And yes, I am telling you that if that PC is broken, there will be a tech center to fix it, same as now with a TV, Cell Phone or a Stereo system. Too Complicated? Last time I heard, Sony has a Service Center per 15minute radio in ALL Third World Countries.

I tell you this: If the rigth segment is identified, and I mean not kids in Africa, rather, School Kids in Anytown South America, Eastern Europe, the Balcans, THAT is the market you want. And they don't want a piece of garbage with a swivel for electricity (Major consumption of Electricity in Latin Countries is Air Conditioners).

I believe you can have me read all the tech specs from your little gizmo, but oh! I believe that a totally depreciated technology sold at its residual price plus a decent margin will cut the cake.

Last but not least, all you slayers of Intel's Barrett, He personally scheduled a meeting here (this Third World Country) to discuss the potential of such a PC for about $200. Thanks bro! You are served.

Robert]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
It's sad but true. This money could be best invested in trying to get the kids basically educated, they assume these kids know how to read and sometimes they don't even know what are those extrange things we call letters.

The problem: Teach poor kids how to read/write makes no money (even the under $100 money)]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Well, that would be teaching valuable business skills then :)

Who'd you sell these to, if everyone had one, btw?]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
http://www.digitimes.com/systems/a20051201A2006.html
"...aimed at carrying out the OLPC’s goal of providing computer access to children in seven developing countries – China, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Brazil, Thailand, and Argentina."]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
no, I'm not "served", because this doesn't have to do with me, it has to do with the idea of a $100 laptop. Leave out the ad hominems - I
don't do it to you, so don't do it to me.

As far as the $200 (is that the hardware cost, or does that include software licenses?) pc goes - that's good to hear. But it isn't portable and the software on it isn't free of cost or of IP rights. When the
hardware breaks, it will cost to fix it. And it costs twice as much as the $100 laptop. Why not try harder?

I think tech support in the third world is just about as bad as it is here, if not worse. If an engineer wants to set a goal of creating a low-maintenance laptop, then good for him. We all know we can do better than what we
have. Some people are not content with "good enough", they try to make things better.

I'm not claiming to know more about the situation in third-world countries, but I have seen the software that runs on the $100 laptop, and it is an admirable engineering feat to do what these guys have done. If I had had access to this sort of technology as a child, it would have made a difference.

I see your point that people in the 3rd world will want what the first world has (Windows, MS Office), etc., but I'm not prepared to dismiss
these ideas because of it.

No one is forcing people to buy this stuff, as Hunter says.

Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
there is no magical one step solution. throwing out a dictator costs a lot of money, war isn't cheep even if it is one of usa's major industries =)

give a man a fish, he eats one night, teach a man to fish, he eats the rest of his life.

but why does everyone see this effort as giving the man a fish? computers are tools, and as far as i can tell this 100$ crank-top is going to be able to do a hell of a lot.

how do i know this? because of the amazing things i see people doing on retro hardware that is much less powerful. oscilliscope on gameboy classic. music production software on atari st. putting together presentations with hypercard on a macintosh se. seriously!

"Second, we will get the fat out of the systems. Today's laptops have become obese." (from http://laptop.media.mit.edu/faq.html) ... this is a problem with computers today. hardware AND software bloat. i had nothing but a 300MHz laptop until last year. i produced my last album entirely on that machine (using audiomulch, audacity, lsdj, and renoise). My room mate upgraded from a 400MHz desktop a few months before me. We watched DivX videos on that thing in linux (dropping some frames, sure).

instead of obsessing over how "bad" some specs are, look at the technology and imagine everything it COULD do!]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/http://www.engadget.com/2005/12/09/intel-chairman-harshes-on-mits-olpc/
exactly. Especially the fish part. And I'm not sitting, I'm standing.

Hunter,

also. Except the fish part.

Remember: this isn't about building a better Windows box. Just because you can't imagine it working, doesn't mean it isn't possible. They know it. Do you?

Boris]]>Dec 19th 2005 12:56AM