Friday, October 05, 2007

One Laptop Per Child

The XO Laptop is finally out.
It's so cool. I want one.
(I realize I have to donate one also and have an American friend buy it for me. That's all right.)

There's so many excellent things about it. Like: it runs on 2 watts? Wow.
And the nice usability of the screen without backlight is great. I wasted my money buying an AlphaSmart Dana a couple of years ago. The keyboard was great, but the contrast of the screen was so low that it was pretty much unusable. Very disappointing. (OK, sadly for my cafe-writing ambitions, the XO does not have a good keyboard. Still waiting for the superior portable writing machine.) (Don't say pen and paper, I need to be able to read it too.)

17 comments:

Alex said...

We've been following this for a while in the office. A few months ago I said to my colleagues that they should sell them here for 2X the price, so each domestic sale sponsors a donation. I would love to try one. It is true you can get a referbdell for about this much money and get more bang for your buck (or quid), but the point is to donate one overseas also.

Heck, cold starting my laptop takes 2 minutes, the last time I had a fast boot was a ZX Spectrum, but then it took 2 minutes to load a game after that.

I think a rugedized terminal for $400 dollars is steal, Sure, no gaming, but most of the time our machines are just used to suffer the web.

If I knew how well it played Java based games I might get multiple.

Will look into this, thanks for the tip off.

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"The last time I had a fast boot was a ZX Spectrum, but then it took 2 minutes to load a game after that."

Same here. That doesn't make us sound any younger, huh?
But I just love how a gaming console today still starts immediately. Plug-and-play, baby. I haven't bothered playing games on a PC for years.

It was about time these laptops for poor countries came out! I might very well get one too. Let Bill Gates help Africa on his own money, he's got plenty.
And, a good point for him, he's realized he'd never spend it all in his lifetime, so he's funding massive and useful projects with it. Nice attitude.

"To suffer the web"... Heh-heh! :-)

Anonymous said...

It is true you can get a referbdell for about this much money and get more bang for your buck (or quid), but the point is to donate one overseas also.

Yes, that's one point but not the only one.

I've heard people dismiss the OLPC machines by comparing them with standard laptops but I think that's wrong - a bit like dismissing a palm computer for similar reasons.

The way that the machine is designed to be robust yet, at the same time, allow the user to play with the insides of the software as part of the learning process is what I find intriguing. I think it'll wind up being used a lot more flexibly than many standard laptops are.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes. I've no doubt that much future inventiveness will come from kids who started with these machines.

Alex said...

There was an interesting article in the paper about why kids aren't getting interested in electronics. Like the OX the "Mobile Studio" is meant to take the lid off, and help see inside.

I used to tinker - broke three alarm clocks, tore apart the old radios etc. Nowadays there is nothing inside the boxes to see, just three or four ICs and a power supply.

Cliff Prince said...

I think it looks like a cool machine. My concern is that there seems to be an assumption out there, that giving kids in developing countries access to laptop computers is in itself a laudable goal. There's an awful lot of unspoken pre-thought behind that -- that the computers will be used for good not evil; that they'll be distributed and maintained equitably and fairly; that educational aims are actually furthered rather than hindered by one-child-per-computer classrooms; that Western-style thinking imposing itself via invasive but invisible assumptions (like, looking at a square box attached to a keyboard) isn't in itself an insidious influence; that we are all better off if we're networked to Bill Gates' navel.

Makes me worry. I'm going to buy one (well, two) anyway. Eolake, want me to add a second pair to my list?

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

Hangar said...
"I think it'll wind up being used a lot more flexibly than many standard laptops are."


That's a safe bet! Look what happened with the PSP handheld console.
I'm still seeking the time to learn how to program my PlayStation2. For those who don't know about it, the original models came with a programming language on the bonus DVD called YaBasic, complete with a tutorial and sample programs. I think the original intention was to go around a UK law about consoles being taxed more than programmable computers, but Sony eventually gave this up.

Eolake said...
"I've no doubt that much future inventiveness will come from kids who started with these machines."


And a whole new generation of computer geniuses will finally see their potential revealed. :-)

Yo, Final, looks like things have improved a bit in your life financially, if you can afford new computers. That's nice.

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Final, thanks. I'm considering whether I still want one, with the small keyboard.

Alex said...

I was going to remind you that it has 3 USB ports, so you can use the keyboard of your choosing, but then again, for laptop use, rather than portable desktop, then that won't help will it?

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Hehe, I can just see myself pulling this out of my bag in the cafe, followed by a keyboard bigger than the machine. :)

Anonymous said...

my cafe-writing ambitions

...at Starbucks, maybe? I like the atmosphere, I usually read a book while sipping my coffee there. Borders London bookshop has a Starbucks booth inside, the atmosphere is great.
They now even open a shop in Moscow, but are finding out that the drinking habits of Moscowitans are a bit different ("Make mine with Wodka" ? lol).

www.starbucks.com (for good measure)

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

For some reason, this town does not have a Starbucks.

I've heard conflicting reports: do Starbucks have free hotspots or no?

Pascal [P-04referent] said...

"I can just see myself pulling this out of my bag in the cafe, followed by a keyboard bigger than the machine. :)"

Y.E.L.P.! Yelping from Extreme Laughing Pressure! :-D

Alex said...

That's strange, Borders here in the US/CA have an integrated coffee bar, but their older rival Barnes and Noble added Starbucks after Borders invasion. Starbucks are also Safeway as the shoppers cafe.

You'd think WiFi would be free globally, after all your customers will log onto the next shops free access point and drink your coffee, anyway. I was in a Red Roof Inn, and rather than pay the $20 for WiFi I logged onto the neighbouring Holiday or Hampton Court whatever it was.

Still, WiFi is passe, those new metro hubs are coming on-line, is that WiMax? Anyway, I know it's coming on line in Milpitas and Sunnyvale, and the rest of the Bay Area will go that way in the next couple of years.

Anonymous said...

...that we are all better off if we're networked to Bill Gates' navel.

Well, that's one umbillical cord the OLPC cuts. The standard system is all open source software (starting from Red Hat Linux).

Cliff Prince said...

Depending on your location, Starbucks does or does not have free Wi-Fi. In most US suburban areas, they charge you for their Wi-Fi by means of requiring that you have a "membership" which also entails getting a coffee frequent-buyer savings card, having first dibs on certain CD releases, that sort of thing. I remember finding out that my local suburban Starbucks had no free Wi-Fi and I was stunned and surprised. How much can it possibly cost them to put in a wireless router and subscribe to adequate internet, above what they're probably already getting for the back office and the cable-radio service they're already using? I guess $45 one-time for a wireless router (bought in bulk by the major corp. head office) and $40 a month extra for the service, max. What a no-brainer!

Eolake Stobblehouse said...

Yes, I agree. It's a puzzler why free hotspots are so rare.

Perhaps the ISPs charge a lot more if it's a cafe. I wouldn't put it past them.