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Nigerian 5-Year-Olds Repair OLPCs in "Hospital"

thedailygreen.com — The OLPC is so easy to repair that even 5 year olds are doing it, and learning more about technology in the process. The rest of the computer industry can learn from this experience.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 2, 2008

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  • balibones, on 02/02/2008, -66/+211...so they can be better at email scams when they grow up.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 02/02/2008, -15/+154Hello, Dear Sir/Madame,

    It has come to my attention that the passing of my royal parents has created a problem. I am a 5 year old by the name of Prince RaeKwon Jelani Agyei. As a member of Nigerian Royalty I am here to execute their final wishes. They have left me with $80,000,000 USD (Eighty million dollars) to transfer from the capital of our great nation to the United States Of America. It is unfortunate however that Nigerian law strictly forbids international transactions of more than $20,000,000 per year from an account. We wish to send you the 20,000,000 to hold on and use are your own as well as 3 other accountholders. You may keep $10,000,000 and the rest shall be used for safekeeping. For collateral before this transaction is agreed upon, we ask of you to first send $10,000 to Rafiki Kindergarten and Elementary School, where I will then contact you using my Sesame Street phone.

    May Peace be Upon you,
    Prince RaeKwon Jelani Agyei
    Abuja, NIGERIA
  • 350Zed, on 02/02/2008, -6/+77Nigerian 5-Year-Olds > Geek Squad
  • Atomic1fire, on 02/02/2008, -13/+78Or they can make enough money to not need those scams
  • thenativeraver, on 02/02/2008, -3/+41That's not something you should be sharing with the rest of the world.
  • Ninnux, on 02/02/2008, -5/+40This reminds me of something I learned in high school about opportunity. If the greatest pianist in the world was born in the African outback, he or she may never realize they have the gift to be this individual. This kind of news is a testament to the human condition, and a profound commentary on opportunity.
  • mthanded, on 02/02/2008, -12/+44Hopefully so they can use them to Digg you down for your comment.
  • blckt, on 02/02/2008, -3/+31dugg for SS phone
  • sum33t, on 02/02/2008, -4/+32Buried for using $ as an S
  • MindTrigger, on 02/02/2008, -3/+28I remember when there used to be meaningful discourse in Digg comments. This place looks more and more like YouTube comments every day. I'm starting to hate coming here because there is no decent conversation anymore. Anyone know of new, similar sites where the ***** from Facebook and MySpace don't go?
  • inactive, on 02/02/2008, -24/+39Nigerian 5-year-old girl want your bank account number and sort code to transfer the monies.
  • unpolloloco, on 02/02/2008, -2/+16have you read the article????? It explains why
    furthermore, any electronics component has a chance of breaking down at some point in time - and its more likely to break in the first few month of ownership than during any other point in its lifetime
  • inactive, on 02/02/2008, -1/+15No *****. We still have full grown adults in America who think the CD tray is a cup holder.
  • capiCrimm, on 02/02/2008, -6/+18more importantly, he tried to cripple the kid by sending him to MSFT.
  • Matt2k, on 02/02/2008, -3/+15Not to be a wet blanket, but when they say a five year old "repaired" a laptop, they mean that their school set up a laptop workshop and the children were shown by their teacher how to repair one. Which is not to detract from the coolness of the story. It's awesome that people that who would not otherwise have access to this sort of thing, now do!

    Also Microsoft has some wicked smart people.
  • SaladCactusKing, on 02/02/2008, -3/+14Because it's a funny stereotype.
  • psyckboy, on 02/02/2008, -0/+9I don't know about you, but every Nigerian I've ever encountered has wanted my checking account number.
  • enclaved, on 02/02/2008, -1/+9I like stuff dipped in ranch, especially breaded and fried items.
  • cap11235, on 02/02/2008, -1/+9It's a joke. You should get your sarcasm detector look at.
  • bradcrc, on 02/02/2008, -1/+9I am mostly interested in the last line that talks about how laptops are powered by "cows walking in a pasture"

    WTF? I want to see the device that hooks a cow up to power a laptop, that's much cooler than a cheap laptop that a kid can fix!
  • FrostyFire, on 02/02/2008, -0/+8You've obviously never been to one.
  • unpolloloco, on 02/02/2008, -1/+8Fixing a broken computer (assuming no software issues) requires nothing more than a screwdriver. I think a 5 year old can handle a screwdriver pretty well
  • micro506, on 02/02/2008, -0/+6Just because you couldn't have done it doesn't mean that nobody else can
  • b3mus3d, on 02/02/2008, -0/+6You might want to try www.reddit.com - it's similar to digg, but the interface and the audience is a little different.
  • inactive, on 02/02/2008, -2/+8nullpolarity@Vega:~$ alias cupholder='eject /dev/cdrom'
    nullpolarity@Vega:~$ cupholder
    nullpolarity@Vega:~$
  • DavX, on 02/02/2008, -4/+10Yeah, a career at Microsoft is totally not valued by the rest of the technology industry. God forbid the kid worked for a company which you personally dislike, yet provides critical services to industries worldwide. Maybe you obsessed open source morons hate Microsoft, but you should open your eyes and get out the basement. Microsoft has done great things, has many, MANY great minds, treats its' employees well and does do good things constantly, regardless of what ***** you'll read here.

    Grow up and get a god damn job.
  • unpolloloco, on 02/02/2008, -2/+7its "green" because of its low power usage and its ability to be charged via solar panels, foot pedals, etc.
    not to say that the "green" label isn't a ton of crap in the first place, but this laptop really does use next to nothing in terms of power
  • jabrthel, on 02/02/2008, -2/+7In the words of Marc Cherry, executive producer of desperate housewives, on arrested development... "it's a satire!"

    Get over yourselves people... just like desperate housewives isn't saying that all northeastern women are cheaters, this guy's not saying all Nigerian kids will grow up to perform email scams. He's just making a joke out of it.
  • AceofSpades19, on 02/02/2008, -2/+7Give a man a fish, he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish, he will eat for the rest of his live
    If they can get a job with computers then they can afford to get food and provide for their family
  • BossKey, on 02/02/2008, -4/+85-year-old + Vista = child abuse
  • imatt13, on 02/02/2008, -0/+4why the hell do children of the more developed countries learn to do this at such a young age? we can learn something from this
  • notoneofus, on 02/02/2008, -1/+5To be fair, it is a green blog, and that's the point of the article from the author's perspective.
  • inactive, on 02/02/2008, -0/+4Simple computers like iMacs? I'm pretty sure iMacs are a lot harder to fix than most (desktop) computers because all their components are squashed together so tightly
  • Antixian, on 02/02/2008, -0/+4you had me at dear sir/madam
  • inactive, on 02/02/2008, -0/+4That's testament to how well designed these laptops are. If one could fix anything as easily, wouldn't life be a lot better?
  • salinemist, on 02/02/2008, -0/+4Yes, wannabe socialist 15 year olds.
  • Microdot, on 02/02/2008, -3/+7also known as: slave labor.
  • heystoopid, on 02/02/2008, -1/+5You forgot a few of Tom's Scatologist brainwashed rattlesnake associates have also arrived on the scene as well ! :(
  • 8KROM, on 02/02/2008, -0/+3hmmnn... interesting thought.. I can say anything here.. and never fear it being leaked, lest someone wanting to be thought of as a dork for reading digg comments and discussing them in everyday life!! excellent idea chap!!
  • PHiZ187, on 02/02/2008, -12/+15None of the competitors in the niche (the Intel Classmate PC) comes to mind, are engineered from top to bottom, cradle to grave, like the OLPC is.
  • e36wheelman, on 02/02/2008, -0/+3Die alone?
  • MrSarcasm, on 02/02/2008, -0/+3Well, if you were breastfed at 5, you must have been a... special... boy...
  • burty89, on 02/02/2008, -1/+4And therein lies the benefit of the OLPC running linux.
  • heystoopid, on 02/02/2008, -1/+4Well that enterprising young lady is learning the appropriate skills to fix simple computers like iMac's and you do not consider it an improvement of returning these units back to cupertino for repairs that can be done locally ?
  • MacEnvy, on 02/02/2008, -0/+3I bet it runs Adobe Creative Suite 3 too, eh?
  • Sinai, on 02/02/2008, -1/+3I think you fail to realize that Nigeria is a fairly rich nation. They're quite past worrying about basic needs for the most part.
  • dualityim, on 02/02/2008, -0/+2No, he meant OPLC. You know, Optimum Pressure Liquid Chromatography.
  • Aitese, on 02/02/2008, -0/+2You had breasts when you were 5? And a baby?
  • vibrokatana, on 02/02/2008, -1/+3Too caught up in your fanboism to spell "OLPC" right?
  • wipis, on 02/02/2008, -1/+3RTFA
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