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[henshawe]

G'Day All,

Seems the Linux and open source folks have done it again. The claim is these laptops will be virtually industructable.

The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them more durable, and their AC adaptors will also act as carrying straps.

The Linux-based machines are expected to have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts.

The laptop will be more rugged and flexible than ordinary ones
They will have four USB ports, and will be able to connect to the net through wi-fi - wireless net technology - and will be able to share data easily.

It will also have a dual-mode display so that it can still be used in varying light conditions outside. It will be a colour display, but users will be able to switch easily to monochrome mode so that it can be viewed in bright sunlight, at four times normal resolution.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4292854.stm

Looks pretty cool to me, like the price too.

Regards,

Americus

[Joel]

The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply.

  a hand crank?

That's either the stupidest or the most marvelous idea I've ever heard.  Can't say which till I see the 'pooter.

[lee n. field]

Apple had almost the exact same idea in 1997, with their eMatehttp://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/messagepad/stats/emate_300.html, which was a hard drive-less Newton in a clamshell case with a keyboard.  I actually managed to get hold of a couple not long ago.  Interesting, but dated.

[velojym]

Hmmm.... a wi-fi enabled notebook computer with a backup power crank (hey, if it works!).
Keep all yer 'subversive' material on it, and if it comes down to it, you can smash it without crying too hard, or toss it into a furnace somewhere.
I see a whole lot of value in it, when I'm riding my bicycle I'd feel a lot more comfortable carrying one of these for my coffee house stop. If I crash, same as above... I wouldn't cry nearly as hard as if I'd lost the one I'm typing on now.

[ZooT_aLLures]

Boy.....did you look at the hinges on that thing?*grin*

[velojym]

if'n they're hollow, you could stuff some survival gear into them

[Joel]

Well, I finally get a look at the "green machine," and I find that...

...wait for it...

It Takes a Huge Government Program to raise a child.

Please note that the $100 laptops—not yet in production—will not be available for sale. The laptops will only be distributed to schools directly through large government initiatives.

The MIT Media Lab has launched a new research initiative to develop a $100 laptop—a technology that could revolutionize how we educate the world's children. To achieve this goal, a new, non-profit association, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), has been created. The initiative was first announced by Nicholas Negroponte, Lab chairman and co-founder, at the World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland in January 2005.

[velojym]

Hmm.... at that price, I'm sure they'll be shipping out a bunch of 'em. I wonder how many might hit the free market (the REAL free market).

[ZooT_aLLures]

at that price

At what price?........the stated sub $100?

That's only the price the schools will have to pay for them........who knows what the "real" price will be...
The one thing I've learned about government is that with EVERYTHING that they tell you.......expect that it's really going to cost 5 times as much and work only one fifth as well as you were told.....

[velojym]

at that price

At what price?........the stated sub $100?

That's only the price the schools will have to pay for them........who knows what the "real" price will be...
The one thing I've learned about government is that with EVERYTHING that they tell you.......expect that it's really going to cost 5 times as much and work only one fifth as well as you were told.....

Uh, I wasn't talkin' about the REAL price, which will have nothing at all to do with distribution. Regardless of how subsidized the product is, the sub hunnerd dollar tag is going to be quite popular.
If you need the other market explained... nevermind.
 (I thought the pirate smiley would have made that one clear enough)

[alauchlan]

The sub-$100 laptop was shown in the paper today as 'up and coming stuff for 2006', and, while it was mentioned that it was  to be sub $100 subsidized to government and educational groups, it would be marketed to the US consumer for around $200, to help re-cover the cost of the $100 subsidized institutional sales.

Allan

[standard issue]

Meh.

I've been following the story for a little while, and it seems to me not only a giant boondoggle,
but that the finished product is going to have all of the function and capability of a speak-n-spell.

If you read into it, it's not so much a "laptop" per se as we think of them, but more like a souped
up PDA. Really, how long is that thing's usable life going to be, do you think?

Honestly, the whole thing just seems like one of those things that's designed to give NPR listeners
a warm fuzzy feeling, dreamed up by some idealistic college kids that are 'gonna change the world'.

Maybe I'm a dyed in the wool cynic, but lets check back up on "the $100 laptop" in the year 2010,
and see whatever became of that thing. (Oh yeah...that thing...I remember that.) 

standard issue

[alauchlan]

Considering how fast computer technology moves, and the fact that it seems that this $100 laptop requires government and institutional support to fly, and still it sounds like it will run a deficit, (the implied sales to us consumers for $200, to help subsidize the project... assuming that us consumers would buy into a substandard performing laptop) I would tend to agree, we'll see if it really goes anywhere.

Allan