Design of $100 Laptop for Kids Unveiled

[cheetahman]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050928/..._dollar_laptop

[a thing]

I wish I lived in Massachusetts...

[bidi]

What I don't get is, kids in Cambodia barely have enough $$ to eat, so why would they want a laptop? The hand crank idea is also pretty dumb, 1 minute of cranking for 10 minutes of power, am I the only one going "WTF"? Another whole in the project is, what WiFi? Do you really think Cambodia is that advance that there's WiFi access points in every corner? Another thing that I don't get is, not even kids here in the US have this luxury, so why are they trying to get an upside-down country like Cambodia? And does anyone really think that someone that steals one of these is going to care what society thinks?

I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just think it's a bad target.

[PsypherPunk]

A hand-cranked PC? Finally my hamster can start paying his way.

The laptop per se is a great idea but if they can manufacture them for $100 why not sell them at $200 elsewhere and give the difference back to the less developed countries? Or just let them sell the laptops if they want? Surely they should be allowed to decide what they consider more valuable?

[cayalee]

i want one! i bet they'd be cool

[chopin1810]

I think we should focus on getting everybody clean drinking water before we start giving kids laptops.

[jerlark386]

Wow, so much hostility towards cheap laptop running linux! Whats it to you if someone wants to distribute cheap computers in some third world country. Maybe its a step towards solving other problems there. Who knows?

It seems to me there no Linux fans here. You must all be microsoft lovers or something.

[neanderthal // anarchism]

aw, guess i'll have to steal it from some random high school kid here

[bidi]

Maybe its a step towards solving other problems there. Who knows?.

I take it you've never lived in a third world country.

[Vergil83]

well I think people are forgeting there a levels of "development" (I hate to use that word).

There world is more than just the industrialized countries and starving people. There are millions upon millions of people that are reaching stardards where they can't afford some dell. These are people who children go to school and computers will be important in their future ability to get a job and improve their lives just like in the industrialized world.

Even if a individual person doesn't need it, local schools do need it.