Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on May 22, 2007 01:26 AM
IMHO, and I am a critic of the OLPC initiative, I think Mr. Negroponte came across as a bit childish. He has a vision, a laptop for every child - fine, he makes no money with his laptop - fine, then why does he care if it is his laptop or Intel's laptop the kids have?
The OLPC machine is a marvel, the tech is great, but do you realize OLPC needs to have firm orders for 3 MILLION laptops before they can deliver production models? What?
Many countries they present the project to balk, because there is no international organization willing to front the money to buy the laptops, build the infrastructure, and teach the users about the hardware/software/internet. The money a Nigeria (for example) will spend on laptops ($100-150/each) is money taken from elsewhere in the economy - they don't have "extra" money for laptops...
60 Minutes/Negroponte tried to spin this as AMD vs. Intel - it's a simple case of a market for millions and milions of laptops, and, suprise suprise, laptop Mfgs. want to get involved in this market...
It was also interesting that one of the uses for laptops in these third-world countries is to act as a night light, in a hut that has no electricity and no other form of illumination (gas/candles)... Wouldn't it be nice to send them some solar cells, rechargeable batteries, and a light bulb or two?
Oh, and an OLPC in USA - forget it, we have to pay a "wealth tax" and buy two - one for someone in another country, and one for ourselves. What? At that price, perfectly capable laptops can be bought that run Vista/WinXP/Linux/*BSD/Solaris/etc...
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Negropnte on "60 Minutes"
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on May 22, 2007 01:26 AMThe OLPC machine is a marvel, the tech is great, but do you realize OLPC needs to have firm orders for 3 MILLION laptops before they can deliver production models? What?
Many countries they present the project to balk, because there is no international organization willing to front the money to buy the laptops, build the infrastructure, and teach the users about the hardware/software/internet. The money a Nigeria (for example) will spend on laptops ($100-150/each) is money taken from elsewhere in the economy - they don't have "extra" money for laptops...
60 Minutes/Negroponte tried to spin this as AMD vs. Intel - it's a simple case of a market for millions and milions of laptops, and, suprise suprise, laptop Mfgs. want to get involved in this market...
It was also interesting that one of the uses for laptops in these third-world countries is to act as a night light, in a hut that has no electricity and no other form of illumination (gas/candles)... Wouldn't it be nice to send them some solar cells, rechargeable batteries, and a light bulb or two?
Oh, and an OLPC in USA - forget it, we have to pay a "wealth tax" and buy two - one for someone in another country, and one for ourselves. What? At that price, perfectly capable laptops can be bought that run Vista/WinXP/Linux/*BSD/Solaris/etc...
Ken
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