The little laptop that could

[applegrove]

The little laptop that could
. . . bring wireless computing to kids in developing countries is almost ready. But it still has its critics
Dec. 4, 2006. 01:00 AM
JOHN MARKOFF
NEW YORK TIMES


CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—"When computer industry executives heard about a plan to build a $100 laptop for the developing world's children, they generally ridiculed the idea. How could you build such a computer, they asked, when screens alone cost about $100?

Mary Lou Jepsen, the chief technologist for the project, likes to refer to the insight that transformed the machine from utopian dream to working prototype as "a really wacky idea.''

Jepsen, a former Intel chip designer, found a way to modify conventional laptop displays, cutting the screen's manufacturing cost to $40 while reducing its power consumption by more than 80 per cent. As a bonus, the display is clearly visible in sunlight.

That advance and others have allowed the nonprofit project, One Laptop Per Child, to win over many skeptics over the last two and a half years. Five countries — Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria and Thailand — have made tentative commitments to put the computers into the hands of millions of students, with production in Taiwan expected to begin by mid-2007.

............SNIP"

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1165187408320&call_page=TS_@Biz&call_pageid=971794782442&call_pagepath=Business/@Biz&pubid=968163964505

[Deja Q]

1. As the governments of those countries are buying them up for their people,

will America's government do the same for its poor citizens too?

[AIJ Alom]

2. I was thinking the same thing.

[Cooley Hurd]

3. Nicholas Negroponte is the younger brother of John...

...interesting.

[applegrove]

4. I know. I posted this almost a year ago. It was odd the Negroponte's

brother was behind this then. And it feels weird now. They aren't the same person. But gee whiz it feels weird.