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
posted Mar 27th 2008 3:22PM
...and of course, it's mr. blurrycam to the rescue.
If I was in charge of the world I'd force everyone to have a DSLR with a good macro lens...
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.
Because they aren't ungrateful little sh*ts...
I'm pretty sure if they throw the laptop really hard it will break as well.
Pogue said not.
(But god knows)
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.
"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.
Yeah, like porn.
http://www.engadget.com/2007/07/20/reuters-shocked-that-olpc-testers-using-xo-for-xxx/
Hilarious XXX on XO
@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
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.
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...
It's a little disturbing seeing a child being referred to as an "ungrateful little yuppie larvae".
Don't worry, a waaahmbulance is on its way.
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.
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.
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.
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).
"You see, this is why you can't have nice things."
It's not a nice thing to begin with.
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.
They'd be better off ripping a hole in you, from whence your ethnocentric demons could escape.
Everybody's talkin about that Funke! Overrated, I say!
"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...
Yeah shipped more of does laptops to Africa so we can get more spam
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.
They'll have to change their name to:
OLPC(*)
(*) One Keyboard per Classroom.
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.
I worry more about the way he disqualifies the children from third world countries
This news comes out of the english forum. The person that started the topic there is from the US. Definite lack of parental guidance.
Clearly, Nilay hates America.
Hiro fears the defamation of his Soylent Human breeding program.
I thought it was hilarious.
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.
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.
You buy them shoes and books and send them to school and what do they do? Eat the covers of the books.
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.
And by counties he means countRies.
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!
How did you come to that conclusion? Kids are kids, and without supervision they're all likely to try the same thing.
Show me another laptop whose keys can't be ripped off. What a non-story.
well, its a keyboard that you cant rip the keys off of
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/input/8193/
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.
I don't think there's much of an obesity issue in Africa.
Unless you count distended stomachs.
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.
Jealous? It IS possible to be thin & work with computers. You think? Maybe?
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.
If I send you my address, will you just send me an 8 gig iphone instead of having to go to your website?
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. ;-)
how about people teach their kids how to take care of their stuff? Maybe not ripping off the keys would be a good start.
Ok carlos spamming his diarrhea all over the internets.
other commenters should be aware of that ;\
oh by the way, surf to spammerssuckballsack.com
Think about it this way: What's a better way to tell a developing country 'welcome to technology, enjoy your stay!' then with an ill-tested peel able keyboard that you can't get parts for? The only other better greeting I can think of would be an exploding battery.
At least their phone tech support should be local. That, my friends is a luxury we are not privy to.
-Matt D.
kids in the developing world take care of their own stuff more than here in the US. they know they can't afford another laptop so they treat it like its gold.
So apparently the OLPC can't handle keyboard abuse, surprising? hmmm ... nope. So exactly how is it supposed to survive in the developing world? Well first of all, children in the "developing world" aren't "some ungrateful little yuppie larvae". I think kids in 3rd world nations would be grateful that they are getting something like a laptop, and would take care of it better and not try to rip out its keys. Also, if something breaks in the 3rd world, we don't throw it away, because we can't afford to, so we fix it and make sure it lasts as long as possible.
This makes it sound like there's a rash of ripped keyboards going around, but I've only seen one person in the OLPC forums with this problem. And that's the same picture I saw there.
Time to bring back the Atari 400 keyboard. Sure, a pain in the rear to type on, but it's one solid piece.
i would imagine that typing every key at the same time wouldnt be very functional
(joke)
Just to respond to the question engadget asked in the last line of their article. While it's troublesome that the laptops are so fragile, everything I've read from the olpc site and from the test sites where these laptops went through their paces was that they were treated with a lot of care. So to answer your question, I'd say "lack of money and possession of an amount of respect for their expensive new tool" is what will keep these babies(the laptops) safe.
It ain't good construction but I'm guessing kids in the developing world will be more respectful of their resources than the spoiled little brats we've got over here.
I would strongly suspect the developing world kids (from all the stories I've seen so far) are treating their OLPC's very very well.
It's popular to knock on the OLPC right now -- particularly given the weird organizational politics and such, but this is a case of "don't do that then".