Mass OLPC Production Begins 167
eldavojohn writes to tell us that mass production of the first XO laptops has officially started. "The commencement of mass production means children in developing nations could have the rugged, open-source laptops in hand starting this month. The OLPC has already announced orders for kids in Uruguay and Mongolia. (Residents of the U.S. and Canada participating in the Give 1 Get 1 program--which donates an XO to a child in a developing nation for every machine sold online--are expected to start getting laptops in December.)"
And since I'm fat... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:And since I'm fat... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:And since I'm fat... (Score:4, Funny)
my tech tree says Metallurgy, Magnetism, Gunpowder, Physics, Invention, University, Navigation, Engineering, Philosophy, Astronomy, Construction, Literacy, Mathematics, Mysticism, Currency, Iron Working, Code of Laws, Writing, Map Making, The Wheel, Masonry, Ceremonial Burial, Bronze Working, Alphabet
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Cheers.
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Yes, it's been brought before, a million times every single time OLPC was mentioned.
I've never been to Uruguay, although I live less than 1000 Km from it, but I have friends who have been there and based on what they say, I'm pretty sure there is electricity all over the country. And (who would say that?) they even have some nice stuff like cellphones an
Some background from Uruguay (Score:5, Insightful)
We have electricity and running water everywhere, better literacy than the US and public education for everyone (better than that of the US if Slashdot whining is to be believed !)
On the other hand, average wages are about U$ 300/month, and so a computer is a luxury item for most, and very especially for parents of school-age children like the ones which will be the recipient of the XO.
You can read at the unofficial Proyecto Ceibal blog (the Uruguayan OLPC initiative) about how this has the potential to be a nice step forward
http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
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We have electricity and running water everywhere
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i laugh my ass off everytime i see this kind of comment. It would seem that people form the "developed world" think that everywhere else people live in the jungle sorrounded by monkeys. Electricity!? pleeeease.
Now, of course there ARE people living in huts in the jungle in some "developing" countries, but these ARE NOT the target population of the OLPC initiative, they are the UN's peace keeping operations and humanitarian initiatives target population
Internet (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Internet (Score:5, Informative)
From that article:
However, the latest twist in the story is nothing but positive. T-Mobile is now offering a year of free Hot Spot Wi-Fi access, good at nearly 8,500 public T-Mobile Hot Spot locations throughout the country, including Starbucks coffee shops, Borders bookstores, and more than 70 major airports across the United States.
The offer is only good from November 12 to 26, and considering a 12-month T-Mobile Hot Spot plan would cost $359 on its own, we can see how this could lead to a lot of OLPC purchases. OLPC has set up a Web site, laptopgiving.org, which has more details.
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for free, on my spacious thinkpad keyboard.
disclaimer: Probably getting an OLPC.
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That's the OLPC's Mesh Networking [laptop.org] feature. Also, the project, IIRC, received donations of satellite time from a company that was providing low-cost satellite uplink stations so that remote villages with school servers could connect to the internet. Wit
If you work in IT, you shouldn't support OLPC (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:If you work in IT, you shouldn't support OLPC (Score:5, Insightful)
But a nice troll, nonetheless.
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But a nice troll, nonetheless.
I shouldn't have to compete with every twit in every 3rd world country willing to work for the cost of a soda a day.
Globalization is a horrible, horrible idea for everyone involved -- except the corporations.
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Globalization is a horrible, horrible idea for everyone involved -- except the corporations.
I think the people that make a decent (by local standards) living from working for overseas companies would disagree with you.
The only people that are hurt by globalisation are the rich Westerners, i.e. the people who can most afford it. If you've got somewhere to live, money for 3 good meals a day, clothing, and education, then you're pretty damn well off. [globalrichlist.com]
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Which is why I would like (Score:2)
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Actually, I suspect in 10 to 20 years my job will be replaced by robots leaving me and the kid from Africa out of work.
But seriously, people think that being educated and working hard gets you an automatic good job that you can keep, but it is really about intelligent applied effort. If your job
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That was what Thailand [kuro5hin.org] was like in 1974 [kuro5hin.org] (USAF at the end of the Vietnam war). You can't compete with "dirt cheap".
-mcgrew
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That works fine until the guy you are supporting is outsourced too.
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Make the Dollar worth less than a Peso. But don't worry, your governement is already fixing that problem for you.
But, of course, that is a hipotetical situation... Or do you really belive you can ride anywhere on Uruguay for cents? It has a small area, but not that much ;)
Re:If you work in IT, you shouldn't support OLPC (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maybe you will be jobless, but, at least, you will know why.
Mods are on crack. (Score:1, Funny)
What gives you the precious ability to hold these people away from IT?
Why SHOULDN'T they be given a chance to learn? You are a fucking racist white ass!
Please go die, you fucking American.
I hate Americans. God save the Queen!
Re:If you work in IT, you shouldn't support OLPC (Score:5, Insightful)
that by being born within these borders they deserve a job.
Having lived and worked in a developing African country I would much rather
see jobs go to people who work their asses off with few educational and
technical resources than to lazy Americans who don't even appreciate
the educational opportunities available here.
Fortunately not all Americans are as such, and those few will remain
competitive, by working their asses off, just as it should be, not by
being born with the national silver spoon in their mouths.
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competitive, by working their asses off, just as it should be, not by
being born with the national silver spoon in their mouths.
So, the way "it should be" according to you is that everyone has to work their asses off just to be able to make an honest living? Enjoy that life, I know I won't. There's nothing wrong with wanting time to enjoy life, time to learn to play an instrument, to play soccer with your kids, and time to watch a good movie
Age of entitlement. (Score:3, Insightful)
We are encouraged to run up debt and then disclaim responsibility for our actions. We can engage i
Re:Age of entitlement. (Score:4, Insightful)
I thought the government was paralyzing us with fear, and helping the rich get richer. Isn't "state of fear" that the current anti-government line?
The reason the western world has it better than most of the rest of the world is a complex and interesting one, that can't be boiled down to politicians telling us we deserve something or rich people paying for everything good in our lives. All that matters for your argument is that America does have a very high GDP, as does the rest of the developed world. Because we're developed we're more productive; America isn't a country of people on welfare who are all wealthy for some inexplicable reason, businesses don't thrive in the US because the government is stealing from the rich, China accepts US credit for a reason.
If you don't think we deserve this or that modern convenience then give them up. Don't write on a laptop about how "ohh we are so terrible, we don't deserve laptops and cheese graters, damn government! No Mr Bush I don't deserve this fancy car you say I'm entitled to and that you're willing to pay for at the expense of the rich, give me a horse and buggy like they probably all use in China! I'm going to help the developing world by denying myself the cell phones and cars they manufacture."
On outsourcing, while I'm writing: My experience with outsourcing is limited to freelance sites like rentacoder.com , where people across the world can bid on software projects. I found that the prices for bids quoted by people in India or Romania or China are right in line with prices I would quote. There are no coders living in tents that will write SQL server for a hundred US dollars.
A lot of the outsourcing by Microsoft and the like to India Research is often done because it lets them get more done per day; as Redmond goes to sleep Bombay is getting down to work, as Bombay goes to sleep Cambridge is putting the coffee on, as Cambridge goes to sleep Redmond is checking its e-mail and seeing what progress has been made.
If you're really scared about outsourcing rather than fight the market you should want these countries to develop as quickly as possible so that everyone is on a level playing field. India will have more IT pros, but it'll need them in their own economy.
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'Working your ass off' varies hugely. I might have a busy 12 hour day where I sit at my ergonomic desk in my ergonomic chair, with blinds to keep the glare of the sun up on the 51st floor on my office high-rise in financial NYC out of
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So how many languages do you speak? I've met lots of people in Africa and Asia whom you would probably judge can't 'count their fingers' but they can speak English as a fourth or fifth language.
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Maybe some of these third world countries should try doing something other than breeding more poor, diseased, hungry children. The US managed to avoid that route after all. So have plenty of other countries.
Yeah, don't worry, that's being looked into right now. Looking at the US it seems it should involve moving into a land you don't own, kill most of the people who live there and bringing in cheap, disposable even, labour from somewhere you can catch^H^H^H^H^Hhire sla^H^H^H employees.
Take a look at your at the worlds history, no civilisation ever became big without resorting to oppression, not a single one ever. The US is just another fine example of how that works.
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mathematics knowledge goes quite a bit beyond counting their fingers. Some may even exceed
your skills in mathematics, yes, even you, sitting in your Manhattan high rise.
Where did your ancestors inherit that wealth from? If you investigate it, much if it you
may consider illegitimate and stolen -- exploitation of these now 'developing' countries
all over the world; don't forget that our initial wealth was inherited from
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Re:Insightful?? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'd recommend checking it out if you haven't. According to the author it comes
down to geography and (related to geography) the availability of native domesticable
plant and animal species -- which is the one resource that matters most. The Eurasian
continent had them, the Americas, Africa and Australia did not.
It's a fascinating book with loads of information. I understand the difficulty
people have with the question you pose -- it's not at all obvious. While treating
these peoples (Native American, South American, Native Australians, Africans
as inferiors for so long was/is not justified, it's understandable why
so many people assumed they were an inferior subspecies -- it in fact takes a lot
of analysis to figure out why their societies are so behind Eurasian based societies.
Now, I agree the OLPC may not do anything. I think it depends on what is included a lot.
I worked as a mathematics and physics teacher for a few years in West Africa. In my opinion
if the OLPC can serve as a substitute for the relatively expensive school books students
are expected to purchase today it would be a massive help -- and in fact cheaper, OLPC and
co wouldn't need to give these machines away if they could show the value of them. That's
all of course beyond the IT educational component of the thing, which seems to be the focus
at OLPC. From what I've seen on the wiki it looks like the ebooks component of the project
is pretty undeveloped.
If the thing was packed full of 12 years of well made interactive textbooks, it would be
a Godsend. I'm a bit worried though that it's going to be more of a toy that kids play
around with -- IM, WWW, email, etc.
Just my 2 cents.
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And the smart developer will start creating an API for doing nice text books. This is how you get around all the publishing houses. Right now, they have a strangle hold on text books and because of their prices, it causes books to be used as long a decade. Worse, the authors do not get that much (bu
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A specious argument that sells books. African and Asian elephants put horses and bulls to shame. America had Buffalo, which would later be domesticated by european settlers, until they became rare, but are still used in less developed countries. The author even mentions Zebras with some bullcrap claim that because they
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Difference species, same family. Not that big a difference. And they certainly exist in developing countries.
http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/698125.html [travelblog.org]
Go troll elsewhere.
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Looks to me like the buffalo's pulling a person carrying a plow. I'm not sure that counts. ;)
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Otherwise welcome this aid to competiting with your most valuable resource: the minds of your people.
There will be no Americans in IT in 20 years
Pssh, let me sell you some long term options then.
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How can you compete with an equivalently intelligent person in a country where the cost of living is so mu
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Oh wait, now i've been layed off because because our sales just shrunk, whoops!
It's about time. (Score:4, Interesting)
Frankly I feel like it's already part mine. Baring unavailability or some weird sales structure, I plan to get one. Or a few.
What choice do I have when my 15 Month old is monopolizing the main desktop at home?
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A slightly obsolete computer, that will run Linux just fine, is absolutely dirt cheap, and you can pretty easily install the exact software programs that normally run on the OLPC if you want them.
Unless you are in a situation where you have absolutely no infrastructure (electricity, internet, etc.), I can't see the benefit to getting an OX/OLPC.
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It's called the XO, not the OX. Apart from that it's small, portable, usable under direct sunlight, wireless, runs Linux and has great battery life.
I want one too.
Still, the about USD 400 buy-two-get-one price tag doesn't make much business sense...
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You've gotta be kidding me. An "older, normal laptop" is over twice the size and twice the weight. Only a used ultraportable (or the Asus eee) could compare to the XO as far as size and portability goes - but the screen definitely wouldn't look very nice under direct sunlight (and if it were usable at all, it'd be at full brightness and power consumption, not with the backlight off for minimum power use), and it would still cost more than
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There are tons of smaller notebooks out there. Of course you can't be bothered to spend 60 seconds searching eBay.
No. 3 hour battery life is quite common. And those are very optimistic figures.
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I did. Most are a lot more expensive than this, have moving parts, and their backlights have probably dimmed.
No. 3 hour battery life is quite common. And those are very optimistic figures.
I didn't say 3 hours. Maybe you are confusing it with the Asus Eee? The most pessismistic figure I could find [news.com] was just over 4 hours.
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25% longer battery life isn't "significant" especially when many people just buy a second battery. Not to mention you'll get a lot more done in that 3 hours than you will on an OLPC in 4.
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A lot cheaper? (Score:2)
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Complete bullshit. No doubt you're looking at nearly brand new units that run circles around the OLPC to try and prove a false point. Here you go. "Buy It Now":
$320 shipped, 800MHz/40GB Toughbook [ebay.com]
$195 shipped, 700MHz/20GB Toughbook [ebay.com]
Or you can get them much, much cheaper if you're willing to try bidding on some:
1 [ebay.com]
2 [ebay.com]
3 [ebay.com]
4 [ebay.com]
5 [ebay.com]
--
Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 15.6). That's an awfully long string of characters
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Manufacturer: Panasonic
Model: CF-47
osmetics: Parts/Repair
Test Results: Tested and does NOT power on. Offered AS-IS, with NO warranty.
Accessories: None - sold as pictured.
Screen Size: 13"
Hard Drive: NOT Included
Processor Type: PIII
Processor Speed: Unknown
Memory Type: NOT Included
Drives: CD-ROM Drive, Floppy Drive
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I am still browsing for pre-kindergarten software. Care to keep in touch so we can share our discoveries?
Thank you OLPC (Score:4, Funny)
Is it just me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is it just me (Score:5, Funny)
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What's wrong with that? Windows just wants to rock and roll all night, and party ever-ry day.
Distribution? (Score:2)
I envision thousands of these laptops sitting in warehouses across the global, with only a handful of "showcase" schools actually receiving and using the laptops.
Mayb
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Hundreds of thousands, actually.
Actually, its not at all like that. Unlike food programs, these aren't being distributed by well-meaning foreign governments or NGOs with no local involvement, they are being, for the most part, purchased by the recipient governments, and delivered (along with associa
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My God! Call Negroponte immediately. How could they have spent years planning this and missed that? Lucky you noticed, or they'd just have dumped them all in a landfill.
Re:How about (Score:4, Funny)
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- RG>
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this and giving one to my 8yo niece who is starting to mess around with computers.
I need to do a bit more research about what exactly she could do with the machine
though...
Re:How about (Score:4, Informative)
But plenty of geeks could use the XO for more than a toy. It's screen would make a good e-book reader. It's fast resume and long battery life, light weight, and solid state disk make it better than a standard laptop for grab-and-go type uses.
I won't drag my laptop everywhere, and my cellphone is too small and keyboard-less to use for much web/email or ssh. The XO fits nicely between the two. It looks very useful to me.
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I got to play with one for a few minutes recently. I wasn't convinced it would be a great general-purpose computer for an adult: the keys aren't designed for full-sized fingers, and it seemed slow.
But I have to admit, it's absolutely adorable.
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If I got one, I would use it for reading books out in the field when I am doing some Wildland Firefighting. Low power consumption, nice display, and durability are of more use there than the keyboard layout.
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Really? It looks like a flattened watermelon to me...
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All one would need would be something to charge the camera, and an external storage device, and it would mean that one wouldn't have to come in for months at a time. I don't think that most would want to stay out that long, but
Geode LX-700 (Score:4, Insightful)
It's got a nice processor, the Geode LX-700. [laptop.org]
That's a lot of oomph actually. I know we're all used to our 3ghz desktops, but think about how nice 700mhz(equiv) actually is. I've got a refurbished eMachines 650 in my basement. It plays divx video with no problems.
You could use one of these as a portable entertainment center easy. Or how about a router? The thing is designed for minimum power draw. Use one in your basement as a router that works the way you want it to work.
A sub $200 x86 with that kind of horsepower and power specs has hundreds of uses.
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Soekris instead (Score:2)
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My 3 year old daughter wanted one the first time she saw it. Sadly, I can't get one here in Europe...
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I'm sure they will show up on ebay once the "give one get one" shipments start.
Presumablly there will be a color difference or something so that you can tell the machine is one sold to a first worlder and not stolen from a third world kid.
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The thing is aimed at children from the very beginning, when there is no child to use it it will indeed end up in the closet somewhere. It's just another useless toy for most geeks, but it's supposed to be usefull and fun for any child anywhere.
ASUS Eee Review Posted Last Week (Score:3, Informative)
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Mattel simply wanted a scapegoat.
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