Uruguay becomes first nation to provide a laptop for every primary school student
By Darren Murph 
posted Oct 18th 2009 12:29PM
posted Oct 18th 2009 12:29PM
[Via Digg, image courtesy of oso]
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5%? Wow, well done!
LAN tournament anyone?
LAN tournament of what, Pong?
My kid's school has Macbook G4's and new Dells that can easily run most games that require Pentium II, 256 MB ram (or more) without an accelerator card.
They can run Half Life, Quake 2, Command & Conquer, Falcon 4.0 and of course DOOM and DUKE NUKEM 3D.
And of course, they have network switches lying around...
@whitecollarcriminal you mean POWERbook G4 ?
They could do a lan tournament of the game Assault Cube. That game is fun and low sys requirement
@Hey
No he meant iBook G4
those things are plenty powerful enough to play Starcraft. it probably runs fine under WINE.
*nix rocks. Imagine a world with a lot less security issues. Let the Microsofty Fannie Boy downgrade begin!
@Ghen,
The peace sign you're talking about is extensively used by people from Eastern Asian nations that most simply simply tag as "Asians". They use that hand gesture like they'd be taxed if they don't...
Sorry but Portugal was first!
In Portugal, the Prime Minister, José Sócrates, already did that last year, by delivering thousands of laptops called "Magalhães" to primary school students...
@ Paradox
In Portugal, they delivered laptops called "Magalhães" to every primary school, not to every single student, which is what Uruguay did
Those damn Uruguay kids and their gang signs.
Paraguay will be pissed when it sees it.
What a crappy Hand-Gesture. I guess Uruguay.
Nike?
If it is, I think the girl got it wrong :P
Hands up, guns out representin that world town
The gesture is shared between Uruguay and Argentina, is a way of sayin' I'm cool with this stuff. It's also used to brag about and it's part of "gesture slang" that has become universal regardless social class.
Everyone knows what that means 'round here, the hand used is not important since what the gesture actually is showing is the face of the performer, as saying 'Hey, how cool I am'. It is funny cause is more often used ironically (the brag is often uncalled for, like when you suck dancing and say "I can do it like this because I'm so cool" implying that you already know you're a loser, but you don't give a damn)
So its like when in America we do the peace sign for photos?
that hand gesture actually means half of a frame when posing for a camera. It's a world wide social thing your nerd-self can't comprehend. pix after the break - > http://www.photography101.org/images/handframe.jpg
It is also rooted to a series of Colgate commercials that were aired in the 90s. The hand is supposed to frame your smile and white teeth. "Dales una sonrisa Colgate" Give them a Colgate smile. As states earlier, it also also used ot say cool. Like when you use your two hands, point them as guns, and make that noise with your mouth "tkt" to hit on a girl... well, if you have ever hit on a girl...
No, it is not.
This hand gesture is widely used in Uruguay and Argentina and it have a lot of meaning, for example "rescatate loco!".
ps :El bananero soy yo :-P
Looks like "Shocker Lite" or "One Shocker per Child".
why dont you go over their and show them a cooler hand sign u learned from Napoliean Dynamite..
I agree, it looks like the "this person is a dick" hand gesture
It is a hand gesture that represent a mustache but in reverse. You put it of course down your nose and it means like "cool" but in a more exaggerated way.
Only those who have lived in Argentina or Uruguay can really appreciate that picture. I was there for two years and seeing that gesture again just made me smile. Thanks, Engadget.
Now if only we could do this in America.. we could easy do this on 5% of the budget, or divert 5% from things that absolutely don't do anything but waste money in the education budget. And if they're made here in the US, it could also stimulate the economy to hire people to assemble the millions of laptops required.
Or we can just give a bunch of banks money for their bonuses, whatever.
maybe divert some of that war/oil money
if we do like you say, then we should have some company like coca cola donate them since they provide all the refreshments on every school campus. then again, the kids probably wouldn't want to such a low end pc,
Since when do grade-school kids need laptops? I'm in college and I don't even need one! Most kids spend their time playing games / movies during lectures anyway.
Yeah because these are really made in the USA.
American fingers are too chubby for laptop assembly.
Well said. But, unfortunately I highly-doubt OLPC or even a gov't program like this would even get one foot in Washington DC without some cable news networks yelling that it's "Socialized Education"
or maybe delay those two or three uav's another month :/
We Americans also have standards, ya know. Standards higher than those OLPCs can ever possibly dream of.
Processor has to be at least 2GHz and better than Pentium 4, 4GB RAM, GeForce processor over 9000 (oh no he did-unt), 1080p screen, hybrid HDTV tuner, Windows 7 Ultimate without any hitches, etc.
Just so you know Tubes, we already have a significant amount of money in education. Technically it IS socialized for most people (funded by, controlled in part by the Federal government), but that's beside the point. Z made a great point by saying DIVERTING funds from another educational task that is doing nothing to the laptop initiative. Unfortunately, that would never happen as: 1) laptops as a necessity is debatable, we already have attention span problems, and 2) the Federal government tends to just make another line item for this type of thing instead of diverting funds.
Instead of lambasting someone for having a problem with the spending and power of the Federal government, I'd try to look into their reasoning and learn some history.
America doesn't need this. The 'poor' in america are, by the standards of the rest of the civilized world, middle class. They can afford their own laptop/ netbook.
It's merely a matter of priorities. Parents need to feel that a laptop for their child is more important the the big SUV, the latest cellphone, the big screen TV, and the latest clothes. And yes, I'm still talking about the poor. If you think the majority of what the government calls 'poor' in america are living hand to mouth, you need to get a taste of reality.
5% of the US budget would buy high end Macbook Pros or liquid cooled Crossfire/SLI Core i7 gaming computers for every primary school student
It's been deployed in some pilot schools in USA already, and it's a huge success, a whole city has got one for each child, it's Birmingham Alabama.
@Tubes
You're saying we don't have socialized education already?
Last time I checked K-12 education was provided by the state
Computers ≠ education. Giving a bunch of kids in America free laptops isn't going to accomplish a damn thing.
Sorry but the problem isn't that we have socialized education in America, but that compared to the rest of the western world our socialized education system sucks ass while theres is superb and costs less. The problem is our political system is broke. Every nuance of public policy is written by greedy corporate lobbyists while the bulk of Americans are to f'n stupid to know what a lobbyist even is, or care... talk about epic fail, America is the poster child for it!
What about Portugal and Magalhães?
I think Uruguay gave them for free, which is better than paying, no matter how cheap it is, and thus everyone gets one.
The magalhães, a.k.a. Intel Classmate 2 has been theoretically handed out to all kids. Problem is, some kids got their computers and after they bhad been filmed they had to put them back in the package.
Even though it's a major logistical failure, I'm pretty sure Uruguay is FAR BEHIND Portugal.
Besides, the Intel Classmates are more powerful than that thing.
That thing is much more powerful than the Intel Classmate.
1. Battery power consumption is 10x lower than Intel Classmate.
2. Readable outdoors
3. WiFi Meshing means no hotspot problems for all pupils to share data and collaborate
OLPC has XO-1.5 coming out with a VIA processor that's probably about as "powerful" as the Intel netbooks yet still much cheaper and better overall.
Portugal did not get any Classmate laptops yet. OLPC has delivered more than 1.2 Million laptops for real and the Children are using them everyday.
Have you even read anything about the OLPC? It uses a freaking AMD Geode processor, not a VIA C7, that's the future version. You'd better read the specifications, because the OLPC XO-1 is much less powerful than a Classmate, which is a run-of-the-mill netbook. Sure, the green one can be abused like there's no tomorrow and still work, but for a cvilized country the classmate is far better.
Wow, the Internet Hive-Mind absorbs an entire country!
Did India screw their uber-cheap laptop initiative and opt for the XO? I kinda lost track of that movement.
The india initiative was some combination of a mistranslation, and/or a deception, and/or grossly unrealistic expectations.
After XO wanted to be the first sub-$100 laptop, and clocked in around $180, Some Indian group decided they would make a $10-12 laptop. Then, they hemmed and hawed a few times, re-estimated the costs up, and changed the actual hardware specs.
What the ended up with is a small desktop box costing around $70-80 that is a lot like the Geode reference designs AMD made. You need to plug it in, and bring your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor. How this would be useful for students who can't afford a computer to start with is beyond me.
Well, that's just sad.
I hope the authorities there wise up and provide the kids with actual hardware like the XO.
Didn't that indian thing turn out to be a printer that could connect to the internet and print textbooks?
Fist post here:
we already did this in Portugal, Uruguay is surely not the first country at least!
Is this fully implemented in Portugal? The news here is that after more than two years, the pc's have finally reached all the kids in the nation.
Portugal did not receive any Intel laptops. It was only for the photo opportunity.
Yes they did fully implement it here in portugal, on a sidenote, heres a picture that i took http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexpinto/3932432561/in/set-72157622407516122/ of a kid using it on a lounge bar on a very remote island i was spending vacation, tough it was a funny photo oportunity :P
It IS fully implemented. Last year my kid got his and all had access to one. Don't know if they're free in Uruguai. Here we have to pay 50€.
My dad is from Uruguay! Woo! Good job! I hope more countries do this!
Maybe you should google "Magalhães".
i never expected to see an article about my country on engadget :p lol
Ya somos dos. :D
It's not a gang sign; the meaning of the sign has already been explained here (it means "how cool is this?", if reading is a hard task for you).
Somos 3!
And they've already gotten internet access to learn their new favorite gang signs... how cute.
Racist much, Brent?
portugal was the first with their laptop magalhaes for primary school more than 500.000 students
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ5olAs1m_A
http://www.iniciativa-magalhaes.com/
It's just NOT true.
Tell us any link to the actual number of children in Portugal who received a free Intel laptop.
It's absolutely not every child in Portugal.
Now we know where the next linux hackers will come from
Where do Linux hackers come from? Or - more to the point - Who runs the machines that enables Microsoft Hackers to contol huge bots? Oh, they're the Windows Users aren't they. Hmmm who does the most damage? Someone who hacks a browser to work on a non-Microsoft platform? Or people who use Microsoft software and say 'I'm clever enough to use this without any security issues' ???
Amen brotha! At least there is more use for these machines in Portugal then Africa. I mean seriously what do people think is gonna happen when you give 1,000's (or more) of laptops to people who really have no use for them? More ebay scams i guess.
@Mathew maybe they could use their laptops to find where countries are, oh look at that Uruguay is in South America so not sure what these laptops would be doing in Africa.
You're wrong. Portugal did it first, with a low-cost laptop named Magalhaes. 300.000 were already given to youngsters attending primary schools across the country. And Venezuela has just started giving them to students too.
http://www.iniciativa-magalhaes.com/
Keep up the good work!
Tiago
It's not true that 300 thousand children got it in Portugal.
Announcing that they plan to have 500 thousand children have it does NOT mean that the children actually got anything.
This is brilliant! Not only does it benefit the majority in a small way, here will be a small minority of developing geeks that will grow up being able to hack, program, tear apart and rebuild these things. Give it 20 years and I bet Uruguay (and Portugal) will have all these cool start-up companies, creating wealth and benefits they never dreamed of.
Well done!
your name fits your comment so well haha.
But yeah I am very interested to see how this pays off in 20 years when they're grown up!
Errr... people from around the world don't know scuat about Uruguay.
We have a ridiculous amount of software professionals and software companies. We are the biggest software exporters in the region.
TCS opened a center here some years ago (I worked there as a software consultant for some time, then moved on to another company), by now they have about 800 employees. Which is a small number compared to other countries/bussinesses, but if you add the fact that we are only 3 million people in the entire country its a nice chunk of the population. They did it because, for the region, we have the best employee cost/software knowledge ratio :D. It's abismal in other countries :(
I think we should change the name of the country. It's Charrua origins ("Uruguay" means "River of the painted birds") make people think that we live in tipis and if presented with an electronic calculator we will torch it because of black magic or something. I think the best job you can get without knowing how to fully use a pc around here is bus driver, or senator (but that's because they are just a bunch of old farts that sit around insulting each other without doing preety much nothing except for raising taxes).
I call it the "national geographic efect", since people only hears from this countries from documentaries about some shitty aborigen tribe lost in some jungle that has 15 members and only talks in giberish, they automatically think that entire countries are composed of that.
Great, now all of the grade school children can spend their time watching youtube and chatting on 4chan.
In Soviet Russia, 4chan chats on YOU!
This article is wrong...The first country was Portugal...The laptop is called "Magalhaes"...
Nice name.
This is awesome. Congratulations, Uruguay!
This can only help these kid's futures.
Nicholas Negroponte should have won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.
Hell, even Megan Fox might've been a decent choice...choke chickens, not triggers!
Why? Because he started an organization to help further educate the youth of the world?
Psshhh, HE'S not a minority president who made PROMISES. I mean come on.. Wouldn't you give it to someone who intends to do amazing things rather than give kids portable futures?
XO in terms of internet lingo means hug and kiss. I wonder if that was intentional? Great job, U-R-GAY (as homer would say) you totally beat this nation I should not even mention.
can it play crysis?
yeah dude, it can play cysis at 128fps with TrueColor over HDMI into a full rez 1080p HD TV and its optical sound output plugs into a McIntosh sound system.
Might be able to play an audiobook about crysis, although they WILL be sued to the full extend of the law for not paying for it obviously.
wow. how old is engadget's internet?
this has been done by Portugal long ago.
forgot to hit refresh, Murph?
Just to clarify, well, Portugal did it first, more than one year ago. As posted - July 30, 2008 - on Intel website (http://www.intel.com/pressroom/archive/releases/20080730corp.htm)
"Intel Chairman Craig Barrett Joins Portugal's Prime Minister to Kick Off New Program Providing 500,000 Educational PCs to Portuguese Children
LISBON, Portugal, July 30, 2008 – In one of the most comprehensive educational technology programs in the world, the Portuguese government is providing educational PCs to school children receiving basic education -- equivalent to elementary school -- in a memorandum of understanding with Intel Corporation.
"
We already sell this PC, entirely made in Portugal, by a comnpany called JP Sá Couto, to Venezuela.
Um, Uruguay started the program in 2007...
Also, does Portugal have one for each and every primary school student?
Seems they do in fact cover every student receiving education, it's a deal to make intel richer from taxpayer money I gather. sweet.
Are you jealous, because your country does not provide computers to every student? Not only to childrens in primary school, but to students from 7th to 12th grade for free (for parents without possibilities) or for 150€, witch includes broadband wireless internet for 5 to 15€ euros for month. It's a case study, in case you don't know
That is just so much a LIE.
Give us a link that proves how many Intel Classmates have actually been given to the Children of Portugal!!!
I bet it's less than 1000 in a couple pilot schools for the photo opportunity with the Intel CEO!
That's a link of the official site of the Portuguese government
Next time don´t talk without searching correctly
In Portuguese
http://www.eescolinha.gov.pt/portal/server.pt/community/e-escolinha/200;jsessionid=2cmXKbXbZhFbrcBPlyyqQT1N6Y5d012cTKs2r27N1rhlMmhn1TF5!1369934805
In english, translated in Google translate
http://translate.google.pt/translate?prev=hp&hl=pt-PT&js=y&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eescolinha.gov.pt%2Fportal%2Fserver.pt%2Fcommunity%2Fe-escolinha%2F200%3Bjsessionid%3D2cmXKbXbZhFbrcBPlyyqQT1N6Y5d012cTKs2r27N1rhlMmhn1TF5!1369934805&sl=pt&tl=en&history_state0=&swap=1
> we're told that the whole thing cost the country less than five percent
> of its entire education budget.
This really freaked me out. That's like, a HUGE amount of money, and I can't believe engadget is trying to make it sound like small change. Was it really worth it? Some one should look into their land fill in 3 years; how many of these machines would we find there?
It's sad that we dont have something like this here in N.A.
But we are stuck paying ridiculous salaries to teachers. Not like this would be the first time that students suffer because of over payed and under educated teachers.
Say thanks to the teachers Unions that fight reform of education.
What's n.a.? (apart from 'not available' or 'not applicable') Namibia?
@agent 25i
I work as a technology specialist in an elementary school in Philadelphia, and I'd personally love to see more computers in our school. However, I don't agree that taking money from teacher salaries to accomplish this is a good idea.
While I agree that primary and secondary school teacher education in the US (can't speak for Canada or Mexico) could be way better, I'm curious to know how much you think public teachers should make. Teaching is a comfortable middle class income, with good benefits, but it is far from extravagant. In fact, teachers in the US make less than other professions which require the same level of education. While some are offended that teachers make a full time salary for working only 9 months of the year, it should be noted that most teachers work more than full time during these months, once you take into account time spent outside of class needed for professional development, lesson planning and grading. Frankly, a day spent with 20-40 children, with often less than one hour per day given for planning, is far more stressful than the average office job.
Teaching, like medicine, is a very human centered profession. I agree that there's a lot to fix, but you don't fix it by defunding humans in favor of computers.
It's not the teachers pay that is the problem, com'on they need to make decent salary. The problem is American teachers suck ass at it and aren't held accountable, our school boards waste massive amounts of $$$$ on crap that doesn't further education, politicians pass legislation that make themselves look "tough on education" but doesn't do shit in the real world - or makes the situation even worse, education policies are dictated by a vocal minority of nutjobs with their own agenda, etc. etc. etc. Teachers salaries are the least of our nations education problems! Americans spend a fortune on education and so little of it gets put to any good use. There are many other nations who spend less on education, compensate their teachers better, and have far better education outcomes then ours? WTF is wrong with us, why can't we do it too? Why are we collectively such f'n tards!?