The Legend Of The $100 Laptop
That's €79, if the fee's transferable
I like the background. Obviously the first picture you took with your built-in webcam was you and your friends, so happy to get your free laptops. "Thank you, American (or German) benefactor!" BTW, If you buy yours for $300, you're sponsoring two kids.
Everyone's fighting with each other to keep this one down. We can start with the fact that it's barely plausible. Get past the Speak N' Spell exterior, and you essentially have what one reporter calls "an iPod Shuffle with a keyboard." Don't mind that I would have lost my shit over something like that in 1996. And everyone wants to make fun of the hand crank. In fact, most of the bitching about the features concerns things that I don't think will be a problem for users unaccustomed to, for example, the Mac's spotless, nigh-edible engineering.
The real question is, why would you hate on the $100 laptop? Do you dislike the idea of cheap hardware, or worldwide access to computers and, maybe just maybe, the internet? Yes, it's underpowered and a bit under the curve. But I don't think the market is going to be pissed about the graphics card. It's not condescending, it's putting everyone on the same page. By the time we're sick of our $100 laptops, we should be able to buy new ones with the Python and Flash we've learned, right?
The question has stood alone, largely unanswered, for a long time: does technology necessarily improve education? It does and it doesn't. It opens doors. If you lack discipline or discernment, computers definitely won't help you. They're changing education more than improving it or wracking it, and the change is generally for the better. Will laptops for everyone change the world? Perhaps not the first world. But I think we'll see differently from the $100 laptoppers. But hopefully not Think Different[ly].
Comments
Books on liberalism and western economic philoshopy are cheaper, more durable, don't require software to be useful, and would be much more effective in improving the lives of Third World children.
The $100 laptop is a worthless bromide. Most children in First World countries don't have laptops, and it doesn't seem to be hurting them any.
Rube; May 30, 2006 1:28 PM