Of course there is money to be made. We live in a capitalist reality. But that does not denote that there is a lack of planning in implementation. I come from a country where when you compare the efforts of my local Govt. to those that the more developed countries have put in place … well *shrugs* enough said.

My guess is that those that are from the “developed” nations have become lulled and complacent thus lack the entrepreneurial foresight to be able to see what the real benefits are for the “population-of-tomorrow” in these poverty stricken areas.

What OS they run, whether the HAVE ACCESS to PirateBay, connectivity to server facilities, etc … all that is not relevant.

“You” (those in the developed nations – indicative by your lame comments and views) have all become “spoilt” and take for granted the educational qualities and benefits that such a tool can provide on a number of levels; for instance in the expansion of mental faculties, growing and nurturing creativity and cognitive reasoning. These children can learn to familiarize themselves with the alphabet, numbers, mathematics, so on and so forth. Plus readying them for the new digital age that you all seem to have already embraced ….

THINK … don’t hate. It is a matter of perspective. And it applies to your outlook on life and what your life is that you have made it today.

And what about these servers that are required for this computer, where is the pricing on those? Not $175 each, huh? This is a cute idea, but there is plenty of money being made here by all involved.

If not, well, I can see it now… Can’t read, can’t write, nothing to eat and the well dried up five years ago… But, Hey! We’ve got Intel inside and the latest Harry Potter moving DLing from Pirate Bay. Life’s good, mon, life’s soooo good…

Education is more important for the long term benefits of economically challenged nations. Human Capital Development – do you ‘no’ what that is? … and perhaps can you THINK how it can contribute positively?

The United Nations has most of the other bases covered. We were addressing the initiative by INTEL to make an attempt to resolve the lack of educational levels. You MUST have HEARD “Give a man a fish …. Teach a man to fish ….”

Sorry all for the seemingly now flamed thread, but ignorant lamers should THINK before TYPING / SPEAKING and in some n00b cases SPELL CHECK …

word to tumbler, good one. shout outs to RSLOG … peace

And who is going to teach these how to use these computers , they would first have to learn how to speak without clicks and whistles and whatever other noises they use to communicate.

Tumbler your soo full of shit… If they do learn how to use computers.. thats going to be the no.1 internet crime consortium in the world, cause what the hell do they have to loose if they get caught. And some of the best hackers are kids you dumb ass.

Oh and SirDaz:
Get a clue too, you are no better than the clueless ppl above.
Just inform yourself a bit about the OLPC – just a short quote from there:
“The laptop nominally consumes less than two watts — less than one tenth of what a standard laptop consumes — so little that XO can be recharged by human power.”

Agree about the food comments too, and I wonder who on Earth is going to get the lucrative contracts to teach these people how to use the laptop?

The point of OLPC is to provide affordable computing facilities to developing countries. (Or even to poor areas of developed countries).

It is NOT for solving their problems, (not magic wand), but to provide an avenue for everyone to access computing technology as well as to develop skills. (shrink the digital divide).

In parts of Africa, they have an initiative where they rig up a bus of computers. It drives around to schools to teach kids the basic computing skills. (Which helps their future career prospects). It gives them a chance.

With OLPC, you don’t need such bus anymore. (Which is damn expensive to run). Each kid has their own system where connectivity is provided via a mesh network. This allows them to go on the web, etc. (assuming they’re within range of another OLPC or main server (which is typically located at their school).

OLPC doesn’t result in lots more Nigerian-style scams. (They’re kids FFS! Not crackers and spammers). So stop with the BS. The goal is to teach kids, such that the future generation will be at least familiar with the basics of technology. Its up to them as how they’re gonna use that knowledge.

Once you realise all this, then maybe you’d get off your high-and-mighty position, and stop with the nonsense. Stop making it sound like OLPC is made to solve the world’s problems. Its not.

I find it funny that people criticise something, and yet, they don’t have the balls to change the world themselves. Oh that’s right, they’re too busy downloading crap from the web…My mistake.