OLPC keyboards literally being ripped apart

You'd think that with a name like "One Laptop Per Child," NickNeg and company would have stress-tested their laptop with some actual children, but it looks like everyone's favorite green machine just isn't up to the toddler challenge -- OLPC owners are reporting that the laptop's rubberized keyboard is easily destroyed by inquisitive kids, who are peeling the keys off like so many scratch'n'sniff stickers. Apparently the keyboards start to split above the U and J keys, and then Junior's off to the races. What's worse, OLPC doesn't appear to be shipping out replacement keyboards right now, leaving frustrated owners in the lurch. Not to fear, though: Instructables is to the rescue with a pretty sweet USB keyboard mod. Here's what we're wondering though -- if the OLPC can't handle the abuse of some ungrateful little yuppie larvae, how is this thing supposed to hold up in the developing world?

[Thanks Sanjay; photo courtesy of Niels_Olson]

Read - Thread about OLPC keyboards
Read - Instructables keyboard modd

[scottbelgium @ Mar 27th 2008 3:28PM]

...and of course, it's mr. blurrycam to the rescue.

[CraigJ @ Mar 27th 2008 4:14PM]

If I was in charge of the world I'd force everyone to have a DSLR with a good macro lens...

[TavisJohn @ Mar 27th 2008 4:56PM]

I would instead give people instructions on how to take pictures!

You can give someone the BEST camera on the planet! But if they have no idea how to use it, you will STILL get the same crappy blurry picutres!

I take my time, and I am able to take really good pictures with my Motorola Razr's camera.

[Mat @ Mar 27th 2008 3:28PM]

Because they aren't ungrateful little sh*ts...

[Ty @ Mar 27th 2008 5:01PM]

I'm pretty sure if they throw the laptop really hard it will break as well.

[nDee @ Mar 27th 2008 10:49PM]

Pogue said not.
(But god knows)

[Renee @ Apr 5th 2008 3:21PM]

My thoughts exactly! It will stand up to the children in developing countries because they will appreciate it enough NOT to abuse it. For pete's sake people, SUPERVISE your children! Mine would never DREAM of picking apart the keyboard of our XO because I've taught them better, and I WATCH them when they play.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 27th 2008 3:29PM]

"how is this thing supposed to hold up in the developing world?"

Those in a developing world might actually appreciate their laptops... or you know... use them for something other than a boredom fix.

[Dustin @ Mar 27th 2008 3:38PM]

Yeah, like porn.

http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/20/reuters-shocked-that-olpc-testers-using-xo-for-xxx/

[J. R. @ Mar 27th 2008 3:43PM]

Hilarious XXX on XO

[The Dude @ Mar 27th 2008 3:46PM]

@Dustin:

Yeah well, their fault for putting in a porn key. I shit thee not.
Above the 1/! key: http://laptop.org/img/hardware.jpg

[Wwhat @ Mar 27th 2008 6:55PM]

Africans are asians are quite adapt at employing waste to create things we could not dream to put together, so I'm guessing they will be able to fix the keyboard without having to order a new one using macgyver-like ingenuity and some waste.

[THizzle7XU @ Mar 27th 2008 11:07PM]

Or they can teach their kids to just not destroy them in the first place. Pretty good lesson I'd say, how not to ruin what you have been given so it lasts...

[L255J @ Mar 27th 2008 3:31PM]

It's a little disturbing seeing a child being referred to as an "ungrateful little yuppie larvae".

[The Dude @ Mar 27th 2008 3:36PM]

Don't worry, a waaahmbulance is on its way.

[Bad Beaver @ Mar 27th 2008 3:58PM]

Dude, had you seen Ghostbusters II you'd know what these little beasts are up to, and there would be no disturbance within your mind.

[The Dude @ Mar 27th 2008 3:32PM]

"You see, this is why you can't have nice things."

[Andrew Campbell @ Mar 27th 2008 3:43PM]

It's not a nice thing to begin with.

[dbs @ Mar 27th 2008 3:33PM]

Oh please. The XO was not designed to fend off a 5yr old. If you hand your machine to your kid and they immediately set about destroying it, then something's wrong, folks - probably the kid is not ready for it.

Don't blame the laptop for the kid destroying it.

Having said that, my son's XO has a slightly torn 8 key, probably from being slid across something by mistake. I'm waiting for a place to get a replacement KB as well, but the image above is someone deliberately, maliciously ripping keys off the keyboard.

[BigD145 @ Mar 27th 2008 3:56PM]

The kids aren't being taught to use it for what it's intended to be used for. They also aren't being taught responsibility. If you destroy your keyboard, you can't use it. What a simple concept.

[bebop @ Mar 27th 2008 9:24PM]

My 4 year old uses my old IBM X31 all the time to watch videos. She's quite careful with it. If a kid is dead set on pulling an XO apart .. ***and you as a parent let them*** .. well that's your fault (on both counts).

[Jetexas @ Mar 27th 2008 3:33PM]

The kids in Africa know better than to rip the keys off because it could make a hole that might allow the tiny demons trapped inside the computer to escape.

[Funke, Tobias Dr. @ Mar 27th 2008 3:47PM]

They'd be better off ripping a hole in you, from whence your ethnocentric demons could escape.

[phanbouy @ Mar 27th 2008 5:13PM]

Everybody's talkin about that Funke! Overrated, I say!

[FGL82 @ Mar 27th 2008 3:35PM]

"how is this thing supposed to hold up in the developing world"

Why do you say that? Do you think the children of developing countries are all a bunch of senseless beasts?

What a terrible sentence to write...

[Who?Me? @ Mar 27th 2008 3:36PM]

Yeah shipped more of does laptops to Africa so we can get more spam

[Boarderwoot @ Mar 27th 2008 3:41PM]

Computer demons are so advanced that they would cause problems so severe even the most experienced Shaman or voodoo witch doctor could not handle... subsequently wiping out entire civilizations all because someone thought it'd be a great idea to put the ability to access Myspace in the hands of every kid.

[Bosco @ Mar 27th 2008 3:48PM]

They'll have to change their name to:

OLPC(*)

(*) One Keyboard per Classroom.

[Hiro11 @ Mar 27th 2008 3:49PM]

Enter the "crotchfruit"-spouting internet children haters. Ungrateful larvae? Seriously? Probably meant as a joke, but it's an overplayed and not a particularly funny one.

[FGL82 @ Mar 27th 2008 3:56PM]

I worry more about the way he disqualifies the children from third world countries

[BigD145 @ Mar 27th 2008 4:07PM]

This news comes out of the english forum. The person that started the topic there is from the US. Definite lack of parental guidance.

[Ty @ Mar 27th 2008 5:05PM]

Clearly, Nilay hates America.

[phanbouy @ Mar 27th 2008 5:14PM]

Hiro fears the defamation of his Soylent Human breeding program.

[scottbelgium @ Mar 27th 2008 5:16PM]

I thought it was hilarious.

[Andir3.0 @ Mar 27th 2008 5:30PM]

Seriously, it's not my job to protect your kid from someone else's opinion. I'd even put it on borderline Progressivism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism While the name sounds all neat and furry, it means that you will raise your kids the exact way that someone else wants them raised among other things. It means that your neighbor must raise their kid the same as you raise your kid. It puts us in even more of a nanny state and it erodes freedom and learning.

[kal326 @ Mar 27th 2008 4:12PM]

Well its either the product was not developed to level of the consumer or the consumer had not developed to the level of the product. Either way no much is made worth a damn anymore to hold up to much wear in tear. Hell back when I was a kid you couldn't destroy a Tonka truck, trust me I tried many different ways. Now they are made mostly of plastic like everything else.

[Rick @ Mar 27th 2008 4:12PM]

You buy them shoes and books and send them to school and what do they do? Eat the covers of the books.

[ecobore @ Mar 27th 2008 4:20PM]

You can be sure that kids in the developing world will treat these things with a LOT more respect than a bunch of orange county brats!

[Reader @ Mar 27th 2008 6:49PM]

How did you come to that conclusion? Kids are kids, and without supervision they're all likely to try the same thing.

[CrackedButter @ Mar 27th 2008 4:23PM]

Show me another laptop whose keys can't be ripped off. What a non-story.

[andres @ Mar 27th 2008 7:38PM]

well, its a keyboard that you cant rip the keys off of
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/

[happy_penguin @ Mar 27th 2008 4:28PM]

Give the little bastards some balls and mits and the like. Let them go outside and play before they end up locked in their bedrooms playing computer games like American kids do.

[Barry @ Mar 27th 2008 4:34PM]

I don't think there's much of an obesity issue in Africa.
Unless you count distended stomachs.

[happy_penguin @ Mar 28th 2008 5:48AM]

Lowest ranked? What's the matter? Did you people take a look in the mirror and get offended by my post? Good god who said anything about obesity? It's not just about obesity, foolish ones. Kids should get out and have a good time.

[iRobot @ Mar 30th 2008 10:07PM]

Jealous? It IS possible to be thin & work with computers. You think? Maybe?

[Sylvia @ Mar 27th 2008 4:42PM]

Boy, I didn't take it as any sort of rip on kids in developing counties. I thought it just meant that most of the homes and conditions don't live up to the housing codes and whatnot it devoloped counties. Whereas Americans often have air conditioning especially for their computers, most countries have far less than that in the way of climate control. There are many conditions that ever poorer Americans live in that are to be considered far less than ideal environments for computers.
I think the idea was that if the computers are this flimsy, they may be more of a burden than a boon for people who are accustomed to leaking roofs and carrying in water.

[Bob @ Mar 27th 2008 4:53PM]

And by counties he means countRies.

[jeppe @ Mar 27th 2008 4:48PM]

Seriously, I bet those kids are well aware that pulling the keys out is a bad idea. A few per school will do so, and the rest will laugh at the kid with no working laptop while taking care to only use it as an assault weapon.

[Bob @ Mar 27th 2008 4:51PM]

If I send you my address, will you just send me an 8 gig iphone instead of having to go to your website?

[Bob @ Mar 30th 2008 10:11PM]

Ouch... The above was actually a response to a spam post (the guy gave a URL and said go to his website to get a free iPhone), apparently Engadget removed it... I wasn't bashing Engadget. Just so y'all know. ;-)