$100 Laptop with a Crank?

[Melbosa]

Source: http://www.cnn.com/video/partners/clickability/index.html?url=/video/tech/2006/01/03/smith.100.computers.affl



Interesting Video to watch.  MIT boys may have something there.

[Thorin]

They mention that they want to make these work on a mesh network, where each laptop is connected wirelessly to its two closest peers, and if one or more of the peers in the mesh (of possibly thousands) is connected to the Internet, then the whole mesh network is connected.  That's a great idea at face value, but I'd like to hear them explain how they will deal with the lag time and bandwidth hogging that's bound to occur.  Connecting to the Internet at 1.2kbps just doesn't create for a good experience.



The Internet bus?  That's cool, especially with that pickup with the satellite dish in the back following it around...

[Darren Dirt]

I wonder if it's the same as this puppy, which the U.N. is apparently gonna start handing out along with the ubiquitous bag of rice and cupful of brown water, I presume.



http://www.engadget.com/2006/01/26/un-to-back-negropontes-100-laptop/

MIT Media Lab chief Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project has won a key backer, as the United Nations Development Program announced that it will support the program, which aims to produce laptops that can be sold for as little as $100 each for sale in the developing world. Although the agreement, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was vague on details, having access to the UNDP's global resources could be a key factor in getting the computers in the hands of 1 million students and teachers by the end of next year. In a statement, the UN agency said it would work with Negroponte to deliver "technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries."



-reader comments-

1. Do people really need a $100 computer? Wouldn't clean water be more useful, or farm machinery or something?

Posted at 11:03AM on Jan 26th 2006 by RS 0 stars

FYI: Here's the original story text -- since Yahoo News disappears so quickly:

DAVOS, Switzerland - The United Nations on Thursday lent its support to a project which aims to ship inexpensive, hand-cranked laptops to school-aged children worldwide.



Kemal Dervis, head of the U.N. Development Program, will sign a memorandum of understanding Saturday with Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of One Laptop per Child, on the $100 laptop project, at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting.



The program aims to ship 1 million units by the end of next year to sell to governments at cost for distribution to school children and teachers.



UNDP will work with Negroponte's organization to deliver "technology and resources to targeted schools in the least developed countries," the U.N. agency said in a statement.



Negroponte wants to start shipping the cheap laptop, which is to have wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity, later this year. The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.



Negroponte, who is also chairman of the MIT Media Lab, has said he expects to sell 1 million of them to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria.



The laptop is expected to run on an open-source operating system, such as Linux.



The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and, so the thinking goes, to fend off potential thieves.

[Thorin]

I wonder if it auto-hibernates when the batteries get low?

[Lazybones]

Wonder how much more often you need to crank when running Wi-Fi.. Wi-Fi is a big drain on most current devices.

[Darren Dirt]

...would the success of the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) plan result in an explosion of hazardous material waste across the developing world?

As of now, the companies lining up to take part in the OLPC project all use traditional -- as in toxic -- materials for their systems. If the OLPC program manages to distribute a million laptops around the developing world, what kind of price will those regions have to pay a few years down the road, when the laptops are broken, discarded or replaced by newer designs?

A few years ago, the question would end there: we would have to decide whether we want portable electronics or zero harmful waste. But we're now moving to a world where we could have both. We've covered, in recent months, a variety of developments that could be combined to make a laptop that, when eventually discarded, would produce few dangerous waste products.

^ excerpt from http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/003881.html -- which has tons of links to research and upcoming products

[Tom]

Ah yes, the OLPC / XO laptop. Its pretty neat. They already are making millions of the things to ship to developing countries. Its an impressive little machine. The wifi system is semi custom, and should be fairly low power.