We
haven't been hearing too much out of the
OLPC camp for a while,
but they've been peddling their
green "concept
design" for long enough that we had begun to get used to it. Well, we still can't know for sure, but according
to Martin Varsavsky, who has recently met with project head Nicholas Negroponte, the pictures above are of the
"winning design." We're not quite sure what he means by that, and we're not even sure which one of these two
designs is supposedly destined for production, or if both are, but they do match up fairly well to most of the $100
laptop specs. We're also unclear on whether the fabled hand crank is present on either design, but we do know that they
hadn't worked out all the technicalities of that part, so maybe it got the kibosh for the "final" version --
if that is what we're really looking at.
[Via
Gizmologia]
posted Mar 4th 2006 1:30PM
i think this is really great, some of those comments, just jealous. if im a kid, i would love to have one of this. i like the one with the handle, and the idea of not needing to plug in for power.
the one on the left looks like it has a crank. who knows...
are they just trying to make it humiliating to have one of these?
I thought the hand crank was that thing on the X.
It has a kind of 1960's appliance of the future look to it. Unfortunately.
I thought the main purpose of these was to help children in underdeveloped countries. And if thats the case, function should dominate over form. I mean do these kids really have any concept of what "good design" is? They've never seen an iPod before. Well either way, I'm glad they're doing it.
Humiliating to have one?
Perhaps you are not familiar with the project or who these laptops are aimed for, that being the worlds poorest of poor who can't exactly afford a new MacBook Pro but would greatly benefit from a computer.
Jackass.
Ugly, but I think that's part of the idea; they're extremely, uh, "distinctive" in part as a theft-deterrent. Also, consider the target audience: school kids, probably younger ones.
The hand-crank power supply thingie, ugly as it was on the prototype, makes some sense if you consider they're targeting developing world application, and in many cases the little darlings won't be able to just plug in a brick when they get home from school.
/SH
Nicholas Negroponte described the design as a theft deterrent, saying "no one steals a mail truck." The idea is that if one shows up in a place it doesn't belong, it is immediately obvious to everyone that someone has stolen from a child.
#4, He (#2) probably means that they dont look as good as they could have been made out to be, & I think I agree to a certain extent... Why the light, faded & drab colours ?
these are fake
The design is not really for theft prevention but for "import prevention". They want to make sure that these $100 laptops don't end up on eBay. And except for the curious, their appearance on eBay will be minimal.
That is of course that this notebook thing ever becomes a reality.
http://www.engadget.com/2006/03/03/rim-ntp-settle-for-612-million-finally/
I think the way you folks kept up on all of the RIM/NTP issue was both informative and hilarious.
BTW - Happy Belated Birthday.
They just sweetened the deal on these, it's buy one OLPC, get one Infinium Phantom free, with an option for some beautiful Iowa beachfront property for the first 1000 who believe it'll exist.
It's lucky the MIT Media Lab dropped him when they did and got back moving toward some form of reality.
I had the good fortune to hear Alan Kay speak on the OLPC effort last week, he and Negroponte are working together to make this a reality. I can't speak for the picture shown here, but he was very adamant that the hand crank was an important part of the design, so I don't think it's going anywhere. Also, touching on the childish look, Alex's post is correct. Kay's words were "people rarely steal a school bus". They are working very hard to come up with anti-theft measures. Considering the countries that these laptops are headed for, a black market on the laptops could destroy the project.
I guess they scrapped the green colored one.
--
-Ryan
CyberNet Technology News
http://www.cybernetnews.com
"are they just trying to make it humiliating to have one of these?"
Actually that is exactly the idea. One of the biggest problems the project is facing is the fact that the people who are receiving this will be ready to sell it to richer people, for money, just like it often happened with Tsunami aid. So the project hopes to make it sort of a 'social stigma' to own one, at least if you are an adult. If you understand 3rd world societies, this actually is one idea that might work.
About the hand crank, that might not be in the final version. At least for the first generation of notebooks.
The specs have been finalized actually, for the first gen.
Oh, and also there are no plans what so ever right now to make a commercial model.
All joking aside this non-existant pile of wasted money is the result of the monumental arrogance and myopia of morons who are positive they know better how to spend $100 for people than they do themselves.
A couple of things they might choose to buy before deciding to go browse Wikipedia? Clean water, maybe a light. I shouldn't choose for them, though, because they know better than I do what they need. Which is precisely the reason "solutions" like this don't change anything. But they do make people feel good about themselves and their intentions, so that's a plus.
I thought the X was a cigarette holder at first. I feel ashamed...
A $100 for a laptop ?!?!?!
Can it actually do something or is it just like those kiddy toy thingies for a 2 year old
17 -- speak and spell returns!!
Looks like a purse to me closed...
Dear Textbook Seller:
Please inform yourself of the specifics of a project before posting your condemnation of it.
The point of the 100$ laptop is to provide an easy, reusable alternative to textbooks. Textbooks are incredibly expensive and simply not practical in developing nations.
These laptops won't be purchased by the families, or the students themselves. They are in fact being given to the students by the governments. The Chinese government has vowed to put a laptop in every child's hands.
The availability of a form of written/visual learning material to students in developing nations will make a HUGE difference, and to think otherwise is sheer ignorance. Not everyone is able to spend the $200+ a semester for textbooks. Our investment in our children and their education is an investment well made.
Please take your cynical attitude elsewhere.
I got it. the hand crank is built into the screen hinge. You open and close the laptop to charge =P What an inovation! haha
I think Textbook Seller is worried about losing some market share to the $100 laptop :P
Maybe they need a 20$ printer to go with them? Oh and then there is the network, the cables and server. Hmmn then the country will need a wifi network, and technicians to maintain it. Don't forget the technicians to repair the little computers. Can't forget the UN project managers to manage things, and the coordinators to coordinate, then the logisiticans to deliver, the trainers to train....then there's the visits by the media and executives to the little schools, to be sure the kiddies are grateful and the public back home know the project is a big success. I'm with the 'textbookseller' on this one.... I haven't heard of such a ridiculous project not since I witnessed WHO distributing refirgerators in Afghansitan to community doctors who had no electricity. Well at least the computer has a hand crank, which no doubt will be disassembled and resold to power radios... Cynicism aside, there is some absurdity in this project, some extreme naivity. But what optimism! Got to respect that...must be the idea of an American.
I still like the idea that they should be commercially available for $200 - when you buy one, you'd put another one in a child's hands. And hey, for $200, it doesn't look like a bad alternative to that Origami deal. I can guarantee that every geek/electronics hacker will want one (or two) to play with, light blue and yellow or not.
25--
wow, your really stupid.
This isn't built for American markets! Its built for 3rd world country schools and kids, who cannot afford iBooks. Philanthropists could buy 7 of these for the same price of an iBook.
insensitive twat.
Specs: 500mhz processor, 4 usb, handcrank, 1gb memory cheap. http://www.engadget.com/2005/09/28/negroponte-details-specs-on-planned-100-laptop/
#25, you bring up some valid issues (like the hand crank "repurposing" lol), but forget both the laptop specs and the implementation of this particular project. Each laptop sets up an ad hoc network with other laptops around it. It's not designed for WWW use per se. This eliminates the need for servers and WiFi, to my knowledge. It's also being deployed mostly in places where paper is costly or otherwise useless, so you can take your $20 printer elsewhere. They aren't being given to children by the UN, they're being given to governments by the UN, who, according to program guidelines, will give them to schools. I guess you are with with textbookseller on this one, as both of you have exercised selective reading on this issue, and have forgotten what wouldn't make you cynical.
Optimism aside, if this turns into a three ring circus with the media and the technicians and whatnot, it'll devalue the entire goal of the project and debase us as a species.
These computers look like they are for kindergarteners. What they need to do is reuse REAL computers that are obsolete in the US. Yes, you have to install the OS and all the software, BUT have you ever heard of a program called "Norton Ghost" that makes whole entire copies of hd's off a cd drive?
While Textbook Seller is right that these kids and their families need access to clean water and food now, I think it's short-sided to not see the disparity in educational opportunity as another tail in the same whip of social repression.
If kids and/or parents need to take a turn cranking power for the Wi-Max transmitter - so be it. There was a time here in America when that wouldn't have been an immediate deal-breaker for the chance to advance education, and start a nation on the path to actually being competetive, or at least involved, in the new global economy. I'm a pretty lazy 21 year old - just a kid myself - and the idea that that may be gone from our culture scares me. This OLPC project is something we can do... it doesn't adddress the whole problem, but it certainly addresses a piece of it. Give these kids access to the world information community now, and I think we'll be surprised by how many of thier own problems, and maybe ours, they can solve as they come of age.
"Perhaps you are not familiar with the project or who these laptops are aimed for, that being the worlds poorest of poor who can't exactly afford a new MacBook Pro but would greatly benefit from a computer."
Have you ever SEEN the "Poorest of the Poor"? A nurse I know does work down in Haiti and it's BAD there. If you have a tin roof, you're rich. The schools don't have PAPER. They need running water and housing before we worry about getting them iPods and Plasma TVs.
Russ wrote: "are they just trying to make it humiliating to have one of these?"
Yes they are, to stop anyone stealing them and selling them on a gray market.
Source Photos are huge:
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=107402065&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=107402101&size=o
http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=107402105&size=o
i think they're cute - but i agree, food and water is a little more important.
yeah! Textbook i know the people hes refering to,
kinda like those socialist snobs who use words
like "myopia".
Can someone explain to me what the point of these laptops are?
If the whole point is to make it easy for kids to get school textbooks and thus become educated, then this will only help in nations where children can read and where there are functioning school systems. The really poor nations will have no benefit.
Besides, if they are selling them to governments, why can't these governments buy their children textbooks? I'm sure if there was a need, cheap textbooks could be printed.
I'd be glad if someone would prove me wrong, because right now this looks like a little bit of a waste.
That thing dosen't look like it could live up to some of the conditions that it would be facing in underdeveloped countries. Who cares if it looks sleek. If it was up to me, the enclosure would be made from stamped sheetmetal with rubberized buttons and drive doors. Build the thing mil-spec, Cheap but able to take a beating.
That thing dosen't look like it could live up to some of the conditions that it would be facing in underdeveloped countries. Who cares if it looks sleek. If it was up to me, the enclosure would be made from stamped sheetmetal with rubberized buttons and drive doors. Build the thing mil-spec, Cheap but able to take a beating.
I have no problem Iwith the idea of this project; its great that kids will get these laptops. Hell, I could use one that is rugged and powered by crank. I even think the goverment could do that here. My problem with this entire thing is the local goverments, and maybe even some in the UN, could sell these off to god knows who. I'm not sure if these countries did sell off AIDS meds, like some stories I rember hearing, what would stop them from selling them?
#32, Go drink some Draino.
I hope these gadgets lead to cleaner water and better food.
dear fhornmikey
a textbook (math and literature)if taken care of properly can last 10 years easily.
do you think these fragile toys will be around in 10 years?
wasted money.
It's interesting to read ALL the comments everyone has posted. In some places, I can imagine that the "public" is not educated enough to understand the implications of some of the businesses that are ruining their water and poisoning their food. Rather than providing a multitude of stop-gap fixes like food and water, I think Negroponte is trying to do some forward thinking. With time, the students will grow up more educated, and will likely be better equipped to help solve the problems that plague their countries.
I think it's a conspiracy by the the tobacco industry to get kids to smoke. Check out the cigarette picture on the bottom left.
You guys are assuming that every 3rd world country is in miserable state with skinny little children running around without any food or water. I think it's a wonderful thing if these guys can pull it off and make this thing work. And as for food and water, I agree that some countries are in desperate need of basic necessities, so why don't we impeach Bush, pull out of Iraq, and spend the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars that are being wasted overseas to actually help humanity?
I can understand and appreciate the comment of wishing they could also be sold commercially for $200. I would like at least 1, just as a novelty. And knowing I was not only buying a $100 computer for $200, I was also paying for a needy child to have one too, would make me and most other good-hearted geeks I know feel good about helping out a worthy cause.
That's what I think could push sales (and I hate cliches) "over-the-top."
@40
FULLY agree!
For each 200$ OLPC sold, one OLPC is shipped to a third-world country - my exact thought since I first heard about this project a few months ago.
"Get one, give one"
Why not sell this to university students in north america. Considering that we need it the most and we are the future of the world, not some starving african kid. All I am saying, sell it worldwide, textbooks are a complete rip of, it's hard enough to go to University with tuition skyrocketing every year, but I also have to pay ridiculous amounts for textbooks. It is not hard to offer this laptop to everyone who wants it.
This whole project is laughable and total waste of money and resources. Here are some points to ponder:
a. How many of the millions of children in developing countries know good english to be able to even utilise these laptops.
b. how many of the teachers in the schools are tech-savvy enough to be able to help the students with the laptops?
c. who is going to teach the teachers in the laptop based instruction? who is going to create the contents and curriculums suitable for use through these laptops. who is going to maintan/repair these laptops. An most importantly who is going to bear the costs for the above-mentioned activities? MIT? The govt of the countries buying these laptops? or the UN?!
Maybe one of the big problems in all this, is that the project is not going to be cheap. 100 dollars per laptop? I don't think so. It appears a small investment for a large outcome but it is not. There are hidden costs, enormous hidden costs, which someone will have to pay for. At this stage it looks that the governments will pay. So they will borrow money...no? Well why don't they borrow money to improve other aspects of the education and health systems? People are being forced in a cycle to buy into this project because of all the publicity around it, not because it is a good project.
They should be sold in the US for 200 dollars. People will thrown them away after a couple of months, then we can send them down to the 'third world' for the price of the container ship. I don't understand why old computers aren't already being dumped...maybe they need to be painted in bright colours.....with the addition of the cigarette holder...
@44. Totally right. The amount of computer waste North America is generating is pitiful. But as mentioned above, not all countries have the means for 300 watts per computer x millions of kids.
I think we should be helping these countries capitalize on what they do have, so that they have the means to help themselves. Better agricultural techniques would produce more crops they could feed themselves with, but also sell to their neighbours. I doubt that giving kids computers would help solve the real issues of the 3rd world. Just as they would be a novelty here (Piled on top of your kiddies' leapfrog dingers), they would be a novelty in the 3rd world. As mentioned above, who would even make a curriculum for the teachers (do many kids even go to school!?), let alone support maintainance and all of the other costs.
Miraj,
a/ Believe it or not, you don't actually need ANY English to use a laptop, if the user interfaces of the programs involved are written in your local language.
b/ I'd imagine that a lot of the applications the children would be running on the laptops would be quite simple, and easily within the reach of any smart kid. I remember hearing of an experiment (maybe someone here could supply more details) where internet-equipped terminals were put up on the streets of a South American city. The street kids, with little or no instruction, worked out how to use them. Writing programs is hard, but using them need not be.
c/ The curriculum need not be changed. A laptop is more versatile than the textbooks in use, and should be able to handle the existing curriculum fine, while also giving useful extra functionality for certain subjects (simulations for physics, etc., perhaps).
As for the cost, that could be a problem in some countries, but in other countries (which may be "poor" by US or European standards, but still have enough of an education budget to buy some $100 laptops), it would be manageable.
This is a wonderful idea, even here in the West. I'd buy one. I'm really not too keen on this design, however. Some attractive, intelligent design doesn't have to be expensive.
A can of black vinyl dye would take care of those nasty colors with ease...
You can give a man food, water, vaccines. You can keep his children from dying slow, horrible deaths. You can do all of this without giving a man any dignity, or any power over his own destiny. It is my belief that this observation is behind much of what Negroponte and his friends are trying to do.
I get a bad vibe off of some of the officials decrying this program. It may be that my political platform and experiences are causing me to read far too much into what's being said. Some of the statements seem to be thinly veiled sentiments that the people should just be grateful that they have been given clean drinking water.
And as others have said, there are the wretchedly poor 3rd world countries, like Haiti, which need far more intervention than a clever electronic gadget. In many of these cases, independent efforts involving bigger commitments by the WHO are needed before we can
There are programs to bring appropriate technologies to the rural poor of the world, people at subsistence level. They apply modern design techniques with ancient materials. One example is the terra cotta refrigerator that was rediscovered recently (some claim that subsaharan nomads have known this design for centuries, if anyone had bothered asking). Another is the cook stove. There are substantial areas of the world that still cook their food using, quite literally, stone-age and bronze-age cooking methods. In many cases, these fires are indoors, with poor ventilation
There are designs for cook stoves that reduce fuel usage by almost half, and eliminate much of the pollution created. The simplest of these designs (the Rocket Stove) constitutes a couple of tin cans and some wood ash. A number of people have spent a great deal of time tuning these designs so that they can be made largely or entirely with indigenous materials.
How do you get designs like these to rural South America, or Bangledesh? Should we stage a new outreach program every time a new appropriate technology is discovered? Wouldn't a reliable information conduit make more sense in the long run?
Yes this 100 Doller laptop is great the little kids in China are going to Read all they want but tell me this how are you going to read something with out the internet they going to be putting cartredges or CD or Floppys alright and i can see it now hand cranking Adhoc Moded Laptop i used to have a laptop thats was in ad hoc it got 2 1/2 to the battery and orr adhoc 3 1/2 thats a whole 1 hr these little things ( and i also mean kids) are going to be dieing from cranking there laptop for 5 min of juse to run there computer in adhoc what im saying our technoligy is not enugh to Keep our 100 doller laptops up get some better battery sytle like a soler battery or something like that
I quite like the idea of selling it commercially for $200 as well, by virtue of the fact that if you were to allow the open source community to own the hardware then new and innovative software could be written easily. Why limit these machines and turn them into overpriced textbooks when they could be used to allow an interactive classroom, eliminate reinventing the wheel with regard to classroom material, and create stronger communities. Algebra is algebra anywhere in the world. By giving richer nations the ability to buy these you also allow them to participate in the content sharing, allowing poorer nations to integrate innovative best practices without the expense of bootstrapping a whole education system from scratch.
There won't be a crank on the final unit - see my blogpost: http://fonly.typepad.com/fonlyblog/2006/02/rolling_right_a.html
then jump to the first post of the thread by clicking on the "here" link. You'll see my calculations proving why cranking will never work - OLPC immediately removed all references to power generation from their website after I posted them.
What would be much better would be to concentrate on installing the Internet infrastructure that will put a phone-equipped computer (known as a "telecentre" in India) in or near every village.
This will provide the infrastructural basis for laptops but will also give the farmers access to local market information for their crops and products. That makes the difference between participating in the marketplace and being used by those who can participate. It's been proven that this can increase the farmers' incomes by 2 to 8 times (and the middlemen move up the food chain).
Any project designer should know that YOU DON'T LEAPFROG THE INFRASTRUCTURE and succeed. The example of refrigerators witout available electricity is a perfect example of that kind of failure.
The OLPC will get a lot of publicity for Negroponte, it will grind to a halt when the money is required and funders start doing their due diligence investigation, and the result will be laptops distributed in relatively wealthy countries (Thailand and Costa Rica, for example) which get used as a new kind of TV (note the sponsorship of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation).
My worst fear is that it will dry up any money which might have been put into infrastructure development. Funders will say "they tried it and it didn't work," even when you're talking about fixing the problem that caused the failure.
I think that education is of absolute importance in developing countries. Yes, food and water are a necessity, but until kids are educated, giving them food and water only keeps them alive long enough to add to the vicious cycle of poverty. I think these laptops, being supported by the various governments, are a great contribution to boost education.
I think that the approach that the proyect could mislead the solution to the wrong market. I live in a 3world country, and here people(kids) have a computer culture. Here with USD$0.50 you can get 1 hour of high-speed internet, almost everywhere; even in some towns of the country you can have broadband at those prices. So, for my country this could be a great achievement. Im quite sure other countries are in the same situation, but because they arent the "poorest of the poor" they are not observed as possible markets. People are too worried to help the poorest countries in any sort of way, that are not focused in offering the solutions THEY ACTUALLY NEED. That thing of the WHO giving fridges to citizens without electricity can prove it I think. The poorest of the poor need to improve their basic life basis. After they have that solved with a strong basis, they can start thinking of been part of the information society, etc. Guess what? there are 3world countries(like mine) that have that already solved, or have good elements to struggle with it. Focus on those, and you will see real results, because people can really take advantage of those not good-looking computers. My point of view is that Latin America hasn't been taken enough in attention by the directors of the proyect for the experiment(because that is what OLPC is), just because people arent "poor enough" to consider giving them free stuff. I hope the best for the proyect, but giving the wrong solution to the wrong being can make this a total waste of efforts, time, advertising, and money.
PD: the $200 sounds good I think, but to sell them like in "limited edition", or something like that. Eventually people will get bored of them, and nobody will "get one" to "give one" to anybody. The proyect cant just sustain with that.
Whats going to happen is that,
The governments are going to distribute them for free and the childrens (parents) are going to sell them for food.
well im from india, and india is a place where english is widely spoken and food and water is not a huge problem. This could be the ideal tool to develop a nations mind
Another point missed - this is an investment in future offshore development resources. Give these to kids living at a subsistance level, and they will fight to learn as much as possible, creating armies of cheap offshore development resources, or millions of new variations on the 419. This is a globalisation tool.
Hey, someone has to be cynical.
How many of you who made asinine comments have actually been to a third world country. There are plenty of people that can be helped with a $100 pc.
My parents purchased a Commodore Pet for my older brother and sister, later they purchased a Commodore 64 for us, then we moved up to an Amiga, then an true an IBM Compatible PC. My father always encouraged us to play on the computer and learn new programs. He taught us the importance of technology and that we needed to keep up with it.
Also, I'm not from a rich family. Looking back on it I was probably lower middle class. My dad worked as a technician for Illinois Bell and my mom stayed home with all 7 of us. So buying these computers may have looked wasteful to some people, when we had holes in our jeans or when I wore my brothers winter coat that he got from my other older brother. But, ask my brother Dave a lawyer if it was wasteful, or my other brother Mark a Med student, or how about my sister AnnMarie who teaches government workers how to use MS Office, or me an IT technician!
I lived in Brazil for three years. I witnessed poverty first hand, but this project would go a long way towards changing the way students and parents feel about education and the importance of bettering one self. This project isn't design to stimulate everybody directly, They are looking for the brilliant minds stuck in poverty that would embrace the technology and perhaps advance it or start their own businesses which would stimulate the local economy and so forth. Don't ever underestimate ambition and the will to succeed.
So many of you make your negative remarks without any forthought, without taking any time to learn alittle about the situation. Yes, there are problems with this program, thats why its still developing. The US, 'best govt' as the college kid in #48 probably thinks, but the us government has problems too, so why dont we just scrape it? Most of the worlds problems can be traced back to the horific state of education. and the teachers wont need to be the most tech savy, children are fast learners, give them the lap top in a collaborative environment, and they'll figure it out. some of the best mathematicians were poor kids who taught themselves out of a few ragged text books. these laptops would be giving the kids alot more then just a few ragid textbooks, it'd be a step to opening up the world
If these OLPCs have "the poorest of the poor" as their target user, what happens when these kids get on the internet. the intention to provide access to educational info will quickly become overhadowed by the internet's true purpose: to provide access to all the latest toys, and all the driveling blogs about these toys, which of course they wont be able to afford. that is not until they get an online degree and take your job away from you or hack into your firstworld identity, bank account. then they'll just throw these ugly liitle boxes into the nearest open sewer and head on over to the local hotspot to surf on their new powerbook and enjoy a latte with whip cream...
While I like the philanthropic ideas, I am personally interested in the commercial $200 version (100 to production, 50 to profit, 50 to project). I actually held off buying a laptop based on seeing this things hand-crank. I agree with others that a ruggedized version of this thing would be in hot demand in a lot of markets.
Unfortunately, I fall in with some of the doubters. This thing is long on promises and short on results. There has been a lot of talk about the grand things this computer will be able to do, but very few answers as to how many of the problems will be addressed. Now I hear that he is requiring governments to commit to 1 million units a piece? This is all starting to sound fishy.
I can come up with a dozen simple solutions to some of the technical problems they are having. I can't imagine that a bunch of MIT PhD are stumped by some simple technical problems.
I'll get excited when I hear they have a working harddrive, or a working prototype for the hand-crank, not a cute case. Prototypes are supposed to look like crap and work, not look pretty and fail.
By now you guys should have known that nothing is at it seems to be. The whole point of the game is to get everyone to be computer literate and to be dependent on the system so we could all be integrated into the new world order where the antichrist will rule, or how else do you want the majority of people in afrioa to be able to buy and sell online if they dont know how to use a computer from a tender age? i'm in nigeria and i sure know that for 100usd, u'll get a used computer with better spec than this 100usd thing and if its textbook, they could as well have printed cheaper books, with 100usd per child, each child in nigeria will be more than well educated so i'm not fooled; dont be too
the x does look like a ciggerette holder.... can we get one of these
regardless, this project has motivated manufacturers to devise other small, inexpensive machines - that's good for everyone. India, has thrown their hand in the mix with the ridiculously priced 10$ laptop...we'll see.