A Child's View of the OLPC 268
Finallyjoined!!! sends us a BBC account of a dad who traveled to Nigeria and brought back an XO laptop for his 9-year-old, Rufus. Here is Rufus's review, a child's view of OLPC. "Because it looks rather like a simple plastic toy, I had thought it might suffer the same fate as the radio-controlled dinosaur or the roller-skates he got last Christmas - enjoyed for a day or two, then ignored. Instead, it seems to provide enduring fascination... With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy rather too much of his time."
Re:Something smells...and it aint my pants (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh yeah, it has no bearing at all.
Maybe you should go read up on the OLPC software stack.
Different languages (Score:5, Insightful)
Conclusion: would be a great christmas present (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't doubt for a moment that this thread will be filled with the usual /. grousing about the usefulness of the entire project, but let's give credit where credit is due: it looks like they have made a product that appeals to children. Perhaps they know what they are doing?
Re:Smart kid (Score:4, Insightful)
And in his spare time, working on the next version of the Linux core...
Re:Different languages (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Kids and computer (Score:5, Insightful)
That's some pretty good parenting, right there.
How about the kids in Iraq? Any OLPCs there yet? (Score:2, Insightful)
The Diamond Age (Score:4, Insightful)
First George Orwell, now this. Where does it end?
Re:children are overrated (Score:5, Insightful)
Review (Score:5, Insightful)
No surprises (Score:4, Insightful)
So far as the length of his fascination - let's hear back in another week or two, or another month, or next year. From late November to now is a matter of three weeks, tops. Even for a nine year old this isn't particularly long.
Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
The acquisition and distribution costs alone pay for the OLPC. The other benefits are pure gravy.
It is also pathetically patronizing to tell these people to stop growing their own food and rely on handouts from foreigners for such basic necessities. "We're foreigners and we're here to help because you are too dumb to grow your own food" just doesn't cut it. Far better to grow their own food and rely on OLPC handouts that they *can't* make themselves; at least that is the beginning of a way up the ladder to a better life. Begging for food isn't.
This project is going to change things (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Emulator? (Score:1, Insightful)
Damn. It sounds like the computer I used in 1979, was unusable. No wonder I didn't learn anything. Why the fuck did the school have that useless thing!?
Re:Here we go again (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it seems that the OLPC machines aren't going to enrich (*) politically connected Nigerian adults but instead they're going to be week-long playthings for "western" journalists instead.
I don't recall reading in the article the guys justification for buying a machine that was intended to educate a Nigerian child?
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* I assumed you meant educate, but reading that back I'm being naive, you meant "get sold by"(?) - too late.