What is Digg?67 Comments
- joshlrogers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21Didn't you read the last paragraph with the hamster wheel and the lifetime supply of hamsters......shame shame shame you need to read the whole article before posting....;-)
- atomicpoet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20I thought the whole reason why laptops were being promoted was because they don't need to be plugged into an electric socket. You can use a foot pump or a hand crank. Tell me, without a dependable source of electricity, how would a desktop be more beneficial than a laptop?
- lefthandedlinux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9this is nice, however i still feel support for those laptops MIT wants to give away to the poor children of third world countries...
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11Better off airdropping tons of condoms and birth control pamphlets into those 3rd world countries so you don't need to give them laptops for their 18 kids in the first place.
- merreborn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7That's actually a pretty good example -- where else can you get a decent linux PC in such a small package for $150?
- vdubski, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Link to video demonstrating the unit,
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9203462148706105599 - Ayavaron, on 10/12/2007, -2/+9I know this is hypocritical to put this here, but when you comment on a buried comment, then you force people to have to show the buried comment in order to understand things. If you don't like what someone said, you should just mod them down. A "Nice post Jackass" doesn't really add much to the conversation.
I'm sorry This is way off the main topic. I just thought I'd proselityze my beliefs on Digg etiquette. - NSMike, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7You mean like a modded XBox?
- n666, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It's not only the people in 3rd world countries who need affordable computers, there's plenty of kid here in the US, who do have electricity but can't afford any sort of computers. The way I see it, the more cheap technology we have, the better. Laptops to cover areas with no electricity and desktops for those that have it.
- strictnein, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6"becuase old components break down much more often than new components."
erhh... I'll see your $89 27" TV and raise you a 20 year old Sony TV. - disrupter, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13Great post dumbass
- doubleYou, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The fact you mentioned iTunes usage shows that you don't really understand the point here. This article is not about YOU who can afford a machine that's capable of running Vista betas and probably has two video cards in it. This is about the issue of getting poor people hooked up with computers so that they can have a way to join the digital world and end their cycle of poverty.
- cmiz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5The laptops would certainly be better in areas where there isn't a stable supply of electricity (if any), but there are still a lot of people that just can't afford computers, even if their homes have electricity. I think this is aimed less at third world countries (which it seems is the target of the laptop) and more at lower income people in developed societies.
- chad78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Red Office is just OpenOffice.org rebranded by the Chinese government - and, of course, it is in the Chinese language.
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5This Municator has been on the digg frontpage before, yet has no (English) Wikipedia entry. Most odd.
- carpespasm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4well then, it'd only take a minute for someone to make one.
- cmw72, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"Didn't you read the last paragraph with the hamster wheel and the lifetime supply of hamsters"
Trust me ... 1 girl hamster + 1 boy hamster = lifetime supply of hamsters! - Shooter1001, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8You people are living in a dreamworld!
Great, lets give laptops to 3rd world folks in Liberia or the Congo or Zimbabwe! What's the literacy rate in these places? Even so, I've known MBA's that had a hard time using Excel and Word. Sorry to say it but what good is a $300 laptop going to do many people in places like these. How long do you think it will continue working?? Then the battery wears down. I think these pc's would be better used right here at home in the USA. Does every kid who needs a pc in America have one?? Welll.....
Now as far as the 3rd world people are concerned I have a better idea than computers. We can help them more practically with something they can use , no power reqs, boots up every time, with a little care it'll last a very long time. Cheap, and reqs no maintenance or software.
Its a BOOK. Want to help the 3rd world? Send 'em books!!! - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Technically computers are going down in price...
My parents bought a Tandy 1000 w/addons in the mid 80s (86ish) for $3000 (I have the invoice somewhere still). Today's money: $5139
I got an IBM PS1 486 DX2 66mhz in 1992 w/bells and whistles (soundcard and cdrom) for $3000. Today's money: $4062.77
Today, a pretty darn fancy Dell can be had for $1000.
While it could be argued that my parents were ripped off, both original computers had addons to make them medium-high end computers at the time (Tandy 1000 had a 286/memory expansion card, EGA graphics card/monitor, and 3.5" drive addon), my 486 had a then-awesome 1MB integrated local bus CL video card (able to run 1024x768) and a decent 15" monitor, allowing it to play Diablo much faster than my neighbor's Pentium 66 with a crappy discrete card. It also had a cdrom/sound card and a 400MB hard drive.
Today you can build a very nice computer for less than a Dell or most other integrators.
However, I dont think decent computers will really ever be super cheap, for the same reason that new and good electronics aren't cheap. No commercial organization wants to sell something with next to no profit margin. - Eldoo77, on 10/12/2007, -6/+9...And the winner of the Digg StupidTroll Award for today goes to "badbox"
- MarkByers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm probably going to get dugg down for this but never mind...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longmeng - Ahnteis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Laptops don't need peripherals plugged in. Keyboard, mouse, and monitor are all part of the same physical object. They're also generally more portable which can be important if it's to be a shared communal resource.
That said, one of these would make a great front-room computer for quickly checking email / that ebay auction / etc. - stisaac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I completely agree. Part of the digital divide is the lack of infrastructure (i.e. Electricity) in many developing countries. The cheap desktop will alleviate digital divide problems for low income households in rich countries, but is not as effective as a hand cranked laptop for general use. Plus, its not as attractive.
- mcbesq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2One computer per person is more than adequate.
- lukas88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I was hoping they would give one laptop per child because kids are easy to beat up and steal from! Foiled again...
- falcyn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Wow. To quote the story "you won't have much luck trashing your friends in a communal bout of Halo 2"
Funny, since you can't trash your friends in Halo 2 with a 10 thousand dollar PC either... seeing as how Halo 2 isn't out for anything other than Xbox. - nappingcracker, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2fools! the computer is an information delivery tool, it will teach. either through pictogram, audio, text, animations -- whatever. they do not need to know about excel, or even to word process or write emails (yet) but the tool can do these things. the laptop is better than a book because it can "talk" it can "interact" with the kid (or adult), and although slightly larger than a book, it "contains" a lot more information. problems with food and water? the laptop can teach you how to purify water, grow food, and avoid STDs.
this are immediate gains, long term gains will be inspiring generations of children. I wouldn't doubt it if these areas that get saturated with laptops conjure up some really great inventions in the next 20years. This could be the catalyst that creates some serious leapfrog (haha, another children's teach-tech device) ideas. It'll be like Buckminster Fuller getting his glasses, blow their minds and let new ideas pour out! - JimV, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Maybe we should worry about food, clothing, and basic education for the world's children before we worry about giving them computers...
Seriously, there ARE more important things to do in the world than using computers. Especially when you live in an impoverished nation and could be doing other things...like farming or construction. - Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2for anyone who doesnt know what the fuzz free geeks are http://freegeek.org/
- kwalker411, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2"Forget One Laptop Per Child - Think One Cheap Desktop for Everybody"
Imagine the sound of a thousand power plants dying. Seriously, until we can figure out how to generate power to keep up with our energy needs in an ecologically sound and sustainable way, does anyone really think giving out computers to /everybody/ is a good thing?
And nevermind the problem of how you dispose of these things... - tekrat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This sounds more like a rework of AMD's Geode based system then something new. AMD did a test market with Radio Shack a year ago and sold then them for around $250 with Windows CE. Some places outside the US still sell them.
Drop Windows CE and other Microsoft licenses and you've made up most of the cost difference right there with commodity parts. - Pharaoh777, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is a great idea, but I think they could bring the cost down even more by using less compact componets. This won't help people in the middle of nowhere with no electricity, but for the many people that are on the edge, this could be an excellent opportunity.
- matt.rubin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Imagine a world where the next generation of computers isn't a hundred times faster and a lot more expensive than the one you just bought. What if they were designed without all the bells and whistles to be just a little more practical at a fraction of the price?"
Sounds like communism to me ;) - kevin.gc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1For some reason, I think we would get a lot more millionaire-in-need-of-your-account-info spam pretty soon.
- Aeror, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'd say there's plenty of poor students who can't afford a laptop for school - right here in the western world.
- BlackCow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think we have to wait a little while before giveing lap tops, let them get a bit more stable. But then by the time these lap tops get cheap enough hopefully that will happen.
@mrmidgetman
You are an idiot. Xbox 360's are for little 12 year olds who dont kno crap about computers. Halo is horrible because you can controle it with a mouse and there for they have to put (lol) auto aim in it. PC's will alwas rule for FPS. - Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I dunno about computers for people who are deprived of even having electricity, but for a cheap second PC, one for the kids, or one to practice networking with, I like those GQ boxes Fry's puts on sale (and in fact, I have two). Standard components. Powerful enough for XP. Even has Linspire installed, so you know it's Linux-ready. For an extra 25 bucks in memory and a 12 dollar monitor from Goodwill, you have a darn decent computer for about 200 dollars.
- Omnicrola, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"I think these pc's would be better used right here at home in the USA. Does every kid who needs a pc in America have one?? Welll....."
On the contrary, most kids who DON'T need a computer in the USA have one anyway. But that's another ball of flameage....
As for the your remark about literacy, ever consider that a computer can be used as a learning tool, to TEACH people how to read? They're talking about effectivly dispatched thousdands of schoolteachers into every 3rd world country, without fear that they'll be killed by terrorists, communicable disease, or other hazards. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Well, maybe we should make it Latops for Everyone. According to this article
http://digg.com/tech_news/Laptops_Give_Hope_to_the_Homeless_5
Laptops would be better for everyone. - killdashnine, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I could see a nation like China pulling this off, but the "give everyone a computer and let God sort them out" idea is otherwise kind of nuts without really filling in the blanks. For most 3rd world countries (and even impoverished regions of the 1st world) someone mentioned "infrastructure", which is key.
For most, without education and without basic needs (food, clean water, etc.) you have an electronic paperweight. Just having a computer isn't going to solve anything at all, particularly in the US. - mabufo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What happened to the laptop that some students were developing? It could be powered by you cranking a handle around - I thought it was genius. I dare say that the poor children of the would would not enjoy carting around a monitor and keyboard everywhere.
- D4V1S, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2YEA! ***** THE CHILDREN! WE WANT CHEAP DESKTOPS FOR THE UNEMPLOYED!!!!!
- MarkByers, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@Ayavaron
Too right! I dugg down every reply down except yours, because I think the message needs to get across. I hope others do the same. - xtarburst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0omg this is so awesome the Vista coming and Linux is gona be free with cheap computers, meaning computer for everyone in the world ^O^
- chad78, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2And 4 hours before that is:
http://digg.com/hardware/One_Cheap_Desktop_for_All
(if your submitted story has a number at the end that you didn't put there - it's probably a dupe.)
This one made it to the front page, and yours didn't. Try coming up with a catchier title next time. - mirtaz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0@CraigB12
There are a lot of people with jobs who aren't going to spend $1000+ on a computer just to go on the internet and type a few letters.
Also they are linux based so will be hard to mess up (no viruses, spyware etc). Even if they did mess them up if /home was on its own partition they could be given a boot dvd with an image of / and this could be copied over and all they'd have to do is set up their usernames and hey-presto computer fixed without losing bookmarks desktop settings or documents. - labboss, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The whole point of the PC is to allow people in mainly China to get online. They are using technology that they develop, building the computers in China to employee their workforce and designing a linux OS around what they want to disseminate to their people. Guarantee that there will be some information control built into the box but ultimately it is to help train and educate future workforce and turn China into a stronger industrial powerhouse (like it isn't now making everything within reaching distance). Look at your keyboard, monitor, mouse or pen. Bet something says Made in China. Anyway, even if it cannot get 1 PC to each person, I bet there will be villages that will now have in addition a TV, a PC that can connect up to it and communicate with Mother China.
- OverHeadCam, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2I know this is childish and immature, but am I the only one that immediately thought about sheep urine? I'd like to keep my hands away from the Yellow Sheep River, thank you.
- soupcancooloff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0the description sounds like communism to me...
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