Linux: USD$100.00 Laptop
I think Negroponte's $100.00 computer will help change the world.
The idea is to get a computer in every kid's hands, by basically, making it as cheap as possible.
He's also sensitive to the needs of third world countries that don't have a consistent supply of electricity and may need to run on battery power (or crank power) for long periods. The
specifications include:
I suppose the keys to this device is a cheap and low-power display and no hard drive. These are two things that use up a lot of power in a modern laptop.
I was introduced to the Apple II computer around 1980 and fell in love. I would spend hours making programs for it, and I would love to see all children have that opportunity as well. Computers are infinitely flexible in that way and the cost of using it is nearly zero. Paper is also nearly infinitely flexible, but it costs money to use and books cost money to buy. With these laptops I can see governments offering books for free that kids can read on their laptops. And then there is the huge amount of publicly available books from, say, Gutenberg.
Via slashdot
The idea is to get a computer in every kid's hands, by basically, making it as cheap as possible.
He's also sensitive to the needs of third world countries that don't have a consistent supply of electricity and may need to run on battery power (or crank power) for long periods. The
specifications include:
- 500 MHz which is slow by todays standards but should be fine for most purposes.
- 1 GB of non volatile RAM (pretty small if that's the hard disk too)
- WiFi, since one WiFi access point is probably cheaper to setup than a bunch of wires and hubs. Also it may be possible to set it up so that if there's no Internet access, at least the kids can hook up to each other in a lan.
- Cell phone since WiFi may not be available, plus this could also be the families phone.
- 1 megapixel (or about 1000x1000 resolution) which is pretty nice.
- Will run on a version of Linux
I suppose the keys to this device is a cheap and low-power display and no hard drive. These are two things that use up a lot of power in a modern laptop.
I was introduced to the Apple II computer around 1980 and fell in love. I would spend hours making programs for it, and I would love to see all children have that opportunity as well. Computers are infinitely flexible in that way and the cost of using it is nearly zero. Paper is also nearly infinitely flexible, but it costs money to use and books cost money to buy. With these laptops I can see governments offering books for free that kids can read on their laptops. And then there is the huge amount of publicly available books from, say, Gutenberg.
Via slashdot
Comments
EtherLinx can provide it !
http://www.etherlinx.com