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 March 27th 2008 3:22PM
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".