The Best Cyprus Community

Skip to content


$100 Laptop!

Feel free to talk about anything that you want.

$100 Laptop!

Postby Sotos » Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:11 am

A 100-dollar laptop, meant to help poor children around the world tap into the power of technology, has taken another step toward reality after the first prototype was presented to a United Nations Internet conference in Tunis.

The brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, who heads the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the bright green laptop still has no buyers or even manufacturers onboard.

That didn't stop U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan from gushing about the project in his opening address to the conference.

"The true meaning of one laptop per child is not a matter of just giving a laptop to a child, as if bestowing on them some magic charm," he said. "The magic lies within. Within each child there is a scientist, scholar or just plain citizen in the making. This initiative is designed to bring it forth into the light of day."

The reaction has been just as enthusiastic in Silicon Valley. Negroponte has been making significant progress behind the scenes in the California computer haven, lining up some of the tech world's most powerful players in support of what could be a landmark effort.

Companies like web search leader Google and chip manufacturer Advanced Micro Devices have pitched in both advice and financial contributions of 2 mln dollars apiece.

Tech legends like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Apple Computer's Steve Jobs and computer-maker Dell's Michael Dell have also put their resources at the disposal of Negroponte's nonprofit organization, One Laptop Per Child. Dell, for instance, has told his component buyers to help Negroponte make sure that he gets the parts for his revolutionary machines for the cheapest possible price.

Altruism is no doubt part of the equation.

Gates especially has devoted blns of dollars to improving living standards in Third World countries where people have been left behind by the technological and health revolutions of developed societies over the last 100 years.

But creating hundreds of mlns of technologically literate world citizens also makes good business sense for technology companies, who are finding that many markets in the advanced world are fast approaching saturation.

Negroponte's machine represents the most ambitious hardware effort to date to bridge the digital divide.

No logo for the initiative has yet been released, but designers could do worse than adopting as their symbol the bright yellow hand- crank that protrudes from the side of the laptop. This throwback to the days of the gramophone is designed to enable users to manually crank up electricity to run the laptop in places with irregular or non-existent access to the fixed electric power grid.

Other features of the laptop include a pliable rubber casing, designed to make the units virtually indestructible, and a flash- based drive instead of the more expensive conventional hard drives, whose moving parts are more susceptible to damage.

The laptop's alternating-current power cord doubles as a carrying strap, while the versatile hinged design of the screen will allow the computer to be used as a writing tablet or electronic book. The display also utilizes a new technology developed by an MIT colleague of Negroponte's that should allow the screens to be manufactured for under 35 dollars each. Another bonus of the screen: it will shift from full colour to glare-resistant black and white for outdoor reading.

The computers will also include wi-fi connectivity and form "mesh" networks in which each laptop would relay data to and from other devices, reducing the need for expensive base stations.

The computers will feature 500-megahertz processors made by Advanced Micro Devices. While no official announcement has been made about the operating system, Negroponte is understood to have rejected offers from both Microsoft and Apple to use their operating systems in favour of the open-source Linux operating system, allowing designers, administrators and users to customize the workings of the computers.

Five companies are reported to be bidding to manufacture the laptops, with the production of 5 mln to 10 mln units due to start next year. Negroponte said that a commercial version may be available at a higher price to subsidize machines provided to children in poor countries.
User avatar
Sotos
Leading Contributor
Leading Contributor
 
Posts: 11357
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:50 am

Postby Maria28 » Tue Nov 22, 2005 1:04 pm

Not bad for $100.

That is less than 50 pounds
Maria28
Contributor
Contributor
 
Posts: 288
Joined: Sun Nov 13, 2005 6:33 am


Return to General Chat

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest