What is Digg?73 Comments
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -6/+52Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand ...
Dear Sir/M,
I am Mr. Pablo Sanchez Wong. an Auditor of a BANK OF THE NORTH
INTERNATIONAL, Argentina. I have the courage to Crave indulgence for this important business believing that you will never let me down either now or in the future. Some years ago, an Thailand Mining consultant/ contractor with the Brazil National Petroleum Corporation, made a numbered time (fixed)deposit for twelve calendar months, valued $12M.USD (TWELVE MILLION US DOLLARS) to the Bank of Nigeria... - bmeshier, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24Just what we need, a million more computers in Nigeria.
- diggeddugg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+19How are they going to get computer experience - how did you get computer experience?
You play, tinker, mess around, download stuff.
Don't underestimate the curiosity/intelligence of children. - flash200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15They need 5 to 10 pre-paid orders before they can afford to start making the laptops. Haven't heard if any of these countries have already paid, but it looks like things are going in the right direction.
- venir, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18It's great to see this project finally starting to take off.
- shrewduser, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14can't wait for the armies of linux users/ open source programmers....
- Mace37, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13I always find it funny how people are so quick to shoot down people trying to help. You're right this is a horrible idea, and these guys should burn in hell for it. Wait, what are you doing about the problem? Sitting on your ass criticizing people who are actually trying to help. Good job, maybe they should listen to you and just give up.
- gothsquirrel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11I've been watching these for quite sometime and would love to get one for my 10 year old sister as to get her into computers without wasting an enormous amount of cash if she never uses it. Just wish my laptop had a hand crank sometimes.
- maino82, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11only a 14% increase? that's HUGE. most businesses would kill if their user base went up by 2%, so to see a jump like that in such a small amount of time is a big step.
- ejpusa, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11ok, time to drop out of the rat race. Sending them my resume today. Heck, drop me off in the middle of the jungle with a $100 laptop. The world is so nuts right now, billions for weapons, and they can't keep my town library open. What can I do? I guess I can help a kid get on-line, heck he'll probably spend the first month on porn, but after that, maybe we can setup a school. I guess it just takes one person right? Sign me up! :-)
- gremos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10like the article says:
"To date, AMD, eBay, Google, Nortel, Red Hat, and a number of other technology companies have signed on to help support the project. " - scuzzman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Are you referring to before or after the countries buy them?
- Charbax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Check out some OLPC videos listed here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Video_of_the_OLPC
I actually updated that Wiki with all those video links.. I hope Laptop.org will produce more videos more often, cause its nice to have video updates. - tuxuser, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12big up linux
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Just wait 15-20 years..
- zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -3/+11Dear Mr/s Politech,
I would like to thank you for depositing 1 hearty belly laugh into my otherwise boring afternoon :) - drizek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8"Just wait 15-20 years.."
Thats interesting, but I doubt the vista release will have too much of an effect on the 100 dollar laptop. - mogs, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9teacher shortages, poverty, and homelessness
All these problems will be helped by laptops
teacher shortages: Kids learn by using the laptop. I work as a senior developer and i haven't learned any programming skills whatsoever from school or books, i've learnt it all from playing with a computer. Different people learn in different ways though.
poverty: again, linked to the above, computers leads to higher education.
homeless: linked to the above again. Also they can use computers to teacah themselves to build stuff, how to make construction materials from what they've got, spread news etc. - becominglumberg, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9You know, I would be thrilled that this would up Linux usage around the world, but even if it does, it probably won't phase the US. We still have told the world to bugger off about that whole metric thing, and EVERYONE knows that metric is much more useful.
- Aninhumer, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9"LOL not really, its just used on them cause it's free- hence cheaper."
Oh and also it will run on these computers at a reasonable speed
And it has allowed them to use an already available WiFi mesh networking program
And will prevent these laptops which cannot be serviced easily from being taken down by a virus
And is near certain to be available in the local language
And gives the children direct access to a tonne of high quality programs
And... - robsta, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm not sure if you have to be underprivileged to get your hands on one of these. But I really want one!! I think I read somewhere about a commercial version that could help subsidize the development of the $100 one. Anybody know?
- dvdsmith, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Go here to more info, http://www.pledgebank.com/100laptop
Basically, its a site where people are pledging to buy one laptop for $300, in theory contributing money to the project while getting one laptop. Apparently this resulted from a suggestion, referencing the link above.
Nowhere on laptop.org, which seems to be the OLPC homepage, did i find any reference to this. Anyone have anything more concrete? - plusque, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11How about clean water, food and shelter before a laptop?
- zetsurin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I think this is a win win for everyone. We have widespread use of open source to move into critical mass and also it benefits those who can't affort proprietary technology.
- Blazeix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I've heard that this project was having trouble, and that each laptop actually costs $132 or something close. Hopefully now that they will start mass producing them, prices will drop.
- astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Work all night and code all day... Daylight come and me wanna use my Linux Laptop!
Got no power gotta crank away....Day Light Come and Me Wanna My Linux Laptop!
Its great to see this go into effect, this should push the percentage usage of the
usage of Linux up greatly. - Rayonic, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Step 1) Buy a million $100 subsidized laptops.
Step 2) Sell those laptops back to America/Europe for $150 each.
Step 3) Profit!
Call me cynical, but that's how I see it playing out. At least I might be able to get a $150 laptop out of the process. - Archer1980, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Ok, explain this to me, i'm a little slow apparently lol they are going to send these laptops, ones with portable power generation from what i've heard not sure that's accurate, to places that have a hard time getting any power at all. ok, if they have power generators great, so then whats the point of the wireless internet? i mean, the US doesn't even have Internet everywhere, how do they expect to get internet to the middle of a jungle??? not to mention the crocks in those country will probably offer some kid that gets one 20$ or less, maybe just take the thing, so that they can support there criminal network? even if the kids get to keep them, explain this to me. My 50 year old parents barely know how to turn on a computer, how are these kids even going to know how to start. Are they going to pre-install instructional videos and such that will launch once they start it up to teach them the basics?
I know this is great for the linux world and all and for all these kids, but i just don't know - jonaric, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4They interviewed the guy from MIT on NPR yesterday. $4M is great, but the guy said that they need at minimum of $5M in order to make it economically feasible. I hope they get that last $1M to keep the program going!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4NOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Damn Nigeria, now theres gonna be 1000's more scams on eBay. - jeffyjones, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8I think that giving them something to eat and a roof over their head would be a better use or resources in some of those places.
- h2d2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5According to a recent article in Wired, the final design is expected to cost around $140, not $100.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/laptop.html - whatwasthat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3from what i can tell their focus is on a local per to per network not the Internet.
(correct me if i am wrong)
as far as theft deterrent all i think they are doing is trying as hard as they can to make them look like a kids toy. - frank3000, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5make that 4,000,001
...i want one - Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I really hope you're wrong.
I don't mean I think you *are* wrong, I just hope you are (as in, I'm not trying to be offensive). I really wish this project the best possible success. - Desolite, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5with the laptops, they get a 1 year supply of Jolt Cola.
- agimat, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Partly the government of the countries that buys them.
Having said that, will these laptops come preinstalled with all pictures of government officials and all their propaganda for easy learning and portable brainwashing. - flash200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3For $100 million, that laptop, and 999,999 others, can be yours
- politech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Oh you cynic you! LOL
- peorth, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Four countries *************commit to buying*************** 4 million Linux-powered OLPC laptops
They didn't bought it yet. Until the money it's on the OLPC guys, they won't start the production. - mogs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2it was 4 million LAPTOPS not 4 million USD. So the orders are for at least $400 million USD...
Does this mean they've reached their goal or does it mean they've got to sell 5 millin laptops for a cost of at least $500 million USD though? - harris2004, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Omg..Another 1 Million laptops will start another 1 million nigerian scammers.
- right75, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Oh great! Now that the crumbcrunchers have laptops it sounds like there is going to be world peace, an end to hunger and upper class lifestyles for everyone around the world.
Is this a UN initiative? If so, success is guaranteed. Everything they touch turns to gold. - Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3We're geeks, we can help with computers, it may not be everything they need help with, but it is SOMETHING. I don't see you pioneering projects that could succeed.
He without sin cast the first stone. - Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Why is there ALWAYS some fool who says this?
These laptops aren't for the most desperate regions. They're for the regions where there's a reasonable food supply, housing, etc. but where education is in need of resources.
There are shades of grey, you know, it's not like the whole of the UK is wealthy, for example. - cal01, on 10/12/2007, -5/+6Uhhh, laptops? How about addressing the widespread social problems such as teacher shortages, poverty, and homelessness? In particular, Thailand is suffering because their teachers keep getting killed and Brazil has a pretty huge social stigma concerning homelessness (watch City of God).
- flash200, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1They need at least one more order of 1 million laptops, all orders pre-paid, before they can get underway.
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I hope that they make these laptops available in Europe too. They're fantastic.
Imagine - repairs would be easy due to the huge market for parts, they'd be standardised and would also be (relatively) expendable. I don't mean they should be wasted, but more like that if a few got broken during the school year it wouldn't cost the Earth (unlike with modern laptops!).
Of course, it'd also be brilliant for the spread of GNU/Linux. -
Show 51 - 69 of 69 discussions
Check out the new & improved 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is