$100 laptop

This isn't exactly news - the folks at Slashdot have been talking about it for months - but I don't think this has been discussed on this forum yet. A $100 laptop has been developed by MIT (and many others) for kids in developing nations.



It will be distributed to children by the governments, who are already interested in buying these machines. Cool features are:

• A wind-up mechanism as an alternative to electricity (I heard 1 minute of cranking for 40 minutes of use).
• Requires very little power to operate.
• Can wirelessly connect to each other, creating small networks.
• Can connect to the internet (will not often be avaliable in small communities, but still cool).
• Covered with rubber and has flash memory instead of a harddrive, so it will be pretty damn durable.
• It runs Linux!

More info here: http://laptop.media.mit.edu
And here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4445060.stm

 

Could you get porn on one of those?

 

What do kids in developing nations need laptops for?

 

porn, definitely porn.

why else does anyone use the internet?

 

The kids need laptops to learn. For example, they can have all the textbooks they'll ever need in e-book form, for free. A CD version of Wikipedia would be handy. They will have graphing scientific and graphing calculators. For the younger crowds, there are educational games.

 

ack, hopefully they dont get wikipedia...

they need a better source of information..

 

Yep, porn. And besides, how will we exploit them if they get edumacated?

 

What languages do they come in?

 

500 mhz, 1gig, 1 megapixel......


you could play a few old dos games on that........

 

why the $100 computer when the African kid is going to die before it can make it trough childhood; from a curable disease like malaria or tuberculosis which can be treated for under $100 ? or starvation or conflict ?
i think the whole deal is stupid enough to leave developing countries poorer than they already are?

It would be better if the developing countries had their own technology thats friendly to their economic climate.
to me this is like teaching a one year old Algebra and hoping it will be a genius when it still wets its pants, to hell with globalisation, its the beginning of a new colonialism and this time it will be addictive and of free will so am looking to the grim side of things...Multilateral corps bleeding leeches to feed heiffers.

Development comes from within not through aid.

peace and love
xxx

 

Get a grip.


They aren't planning on giving these laptops to starving children in refugee camps fleeing famine and war. There are a hundreds of millions of children in the third world who have access to the basic necessities but are still poor.

I think its a great idea.

 

hell, there are enough poor people right here in our country who should have access to those cheap laptops. But that wont happen, our government would not want to cause problems for all those local companies who sell laptops for 1000.00 even though they are really only worth a 100

 

umbra:

“Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish; and you have
fed him for a lifetime."

Yes, you can solve many problems for $100 but this means you'll have to keep solving them forever. The only real solution is education, which is exactly what this project is about. If the children are given a chance to learn, these countries will eventually be able to solve their own problems. You suggest that development should come from within, but how are you going to make that happen? Only when the people are educated can they develop their country.

seaofgreen:

Very true, there are many people here who need these kinds of laptops as well. I think there's no reason why they shouldn't sell them here.

 

I think providing the developing countries with these laptops is a positive factor they also have a right to knowledge and knowledge is one of the factors they need to build their country and the fact that the laptop also runs linux is nice....

 

That's a really weird concept.
trying to get them addicted free eh?
Well, I suppose it can be handy.

lol, little networks with children computers, then sites...haha

well, deffinately entertaining!
And interesting...

Alden, I....see your sig...

 

2,00,000 people die every year from diarrhea, most of them children. I understand the need for education, but all those young kids dying from something that could have been prevented with some Gator Aide or Pedialite is unacceptable. This one bothers me. Priorities aren't being considered right, here.

 

hahhahaha

 

Porn!

 

Hello



According to me, face to the third world's poverty; it's a good idea. Indeed, by designing this computer, the MIT permits the poor to have an access to computer science and to technology. In India, if someone wants to be sure that his child will have a good job, he can send him to a computer science school, and he is sure that his son or his daughter will have a job and a respectable wage. Moreover, it permits the poor to communicate with other children all over the world. However, people will probably use it one time, two times and sell it to get food. Or it could be the root of a black market. But I do not think it's a waste of money, as "Syntax" said, they have to learn using new technologies to improve their countries' situation.


Mayeul

 

Hello everybody !

On the one hand, I think it allows children to have access to new technologies, which are very common in our countries but rare in theirs. They can learn a lot about foreign civilisations and communicate with other children from their country. But on the other hand, perhaps it would be more useful to send them food instead of computers. They don’t have enough to live, they die of famine and diseases and with the price of a computer, $100, they could live comfortably proportionally to their country, for several months, when we know that around 30 % of the population in the 3rd world is living with less than $1 a day. On top of that, it is possible that many people won’t use their computer and will send it to tourists or richer people to earn money, which, according to me, would be beneficial to better live conditions.