Oops: $25m For This

[freizugheit]

http://valleywag.com/tech/space-nerds/25m-...this-250831.php

If I were him, I would like to spend such $$$ to those kids in developed countries who desperately need a computer for their study.

How will you put $25 M in good use?

[Antikx]

I'd put a Zaurus in the hands of the kids in developing countries.

[sdjf]

It won't take that much to do it..people are working on getting one laptop per child in developing countries now at:

 http://www.laptop.org/

One laptop per child using totally free linux software...education and micro-business ventures for them to change our world now!

Also see:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC4USA

The units are being tested now...and I believe they can use more committed volunteers to help with the project.

sdjf

[adf]

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)

[adf]

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158567\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

edit: olpc is a good project-- I just wish the US would get behind it. Our support for education is worse than pathetic....   Especially when you look at the tiny trickle that gets past "administrative projects" "Building and maintenance" and the publishing companies.... and DELL.

[sdjf]

Yeah, their choice of website name is horribly misleading.  The devices come out of work done at MIT I believe, and will run about $100 each.

People all over the world are doing translation for the project, and the goal truly is to make the world a better place for those who are neediest.

They are working on software to provide the kids with good education, and hope to hook them up with international online tutors to help them with their lessons.  Learn more by checking out their website.

sdjf

[Capn_Fish]

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158567\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

So true...

[desertrat]

It won't take that much to do it..people are working on getting one laptop per child in developing countries now at:

 http://www.laptop.org/

Those lowest of the low at M$ have to go and spoil things:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/30/windows_on_olpc/

Basically the OLPC device will now support windoze (wince) and instead of costing the original $100 will now cost $175.

"The addition of the Windows capability is not the reason for the price hike. The cost of raw materials, particularly nickel, has pushed the cost up, OLPC explained." - yeah and Mike Tyson will be the next president of the USA.

According to a report on www.basemetals.com - "Average nickel prices will rise for the sixth consecutive year in 2007 and show a sevenfold increase over the past six years, steel consultant MEPS predicts"
Assuming the OLPC project started planning based on the price of nickel 6 years ago, then nickel would have to make up 10% of the materials of the OLPC to account for the $75 increase (assuming other materials and costs stayed the same).

[Da_Blitz]

remeber every middle man will add a bit more to there take when somthing goes up in price, even if they dont work any harder

these things are very nice and in fact most of the patches for the kohjinsha are from work with this project. its simply amaving how simmilar they are but the diffrence is thier wifi works

[sdjf]

Those lowest of the low at M$ have to
   go and spoil things:
   http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/04/
   30/windows_on_olpc/
   Basically the OLPC device will now
   support windoze (wince) and instead
   of costing the original $100 will now
   cost $175.

Real bummed out to hear that. Something pretty heavy duty, that they aren't telling us, must have happened to cause such a major change in the plan for totally free software.

I believe the Gates establishment must have been extremely threatened by the loss of a major market the original plan would have engendered.  There are many articles linked to by the above, and in one of them, Gates berated the idea of kids having to crank the devices to generate power.  Sorry, lost that URL last night in a crash, but that particular criticism may have played a role in his success.  But, geez, if the kids are in villages and hand-pumping or carrying water, will they care about having to generate more power while they are reading?  The resulting doubling of price is ridiculous.

Gates must have done something that would prevent them from getting some essential hardware component, coercing the change.  I have a friend who has been involved with the project a very long time, and I can't believe they dropped the idealism without something fishy happening.  I'll see what my friend has to say.

sdjf

[Fushnchupsh]

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158567\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

edit: olpc is a good project-- I just wish the US would get behind it. Our support for education is worse than pathetic....   Especially when you look at the tiny trickle that gets past "administrative projects" "Building and maintenance" and the publishing companies.... and DELL.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158570\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

aye, it's a shame.  Coming from Connecticut, where taxes are disgusting it's hard to swallow the fact that neigh 75 percent of our taxes go to education.  The whole thing needs to be restructured.  Here, we put in so much money into the system and yet, most of it gets swallowed at the top.  They always try ask for more money, but the problem isn't in a lacking of funds it's in uncessesary spending (here, that is.  We are spoiled brats education-wise)

--Fish

[desertrat]

Gates must have done something that would prevent them from getting some essential hardware component, coercing the change

They probably bought all the nickel futures for the next decade and are now holding OLPC to ransom

[sdjf]

Ah, I remember now.  The beauty of the hand crank is that these OLPC machines were meant for areas where electricity may not be available or dependable, or affordable.  It would mean the infrastructure to help them get on their feet would not be destroyed by a flood, a bombing, or whatever.

I bet much of that cost is total redesign to accommodate our image from the affluent part of the globe, not to fit the reality of these people.  What good is an educational system that depends on transportation when the roads are flooded and there's not funding for repairs, on being able to afford books, or batteries for an OLPC, when there isn't even enough money for food?

Stuuuppppiiiid, totally stuppppiiiiiddd.

sdjf

[adf]

The funding presents its own problem. Every asshole in the country wants to siphon that river of cash--from local garbage contractors to the admins to the publishing houses and universities. All of them have more clout than the pinko bastard lazy unionized teachers (which is pretty much what they get called when they negotiate for compensation adequate to their training and situation, or staffing adequate to the task, or really--not kickback based- suitable materials budgets). Policy tends to reflect this.  At the same time, I seriously doubt a teacher in connecticut can afford the cost of living outside maybe a few of the worse parts in New London.  Certainly no one teaching in Cos Cobb lives anywhere near the place; ya gotta bus 'em in like maids and toilet cleaners, or other domestic servants. Nothing would induce me to put up with that. I wonder what the actual affect on the quality of education is?

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158567\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

edit: olpc is a good project-- I just wish the US would get behind it. Our support for education is worse than pathetic....   Especially when you look at the tiny trickle that gets past "administrative projects" "Building and maintenance" and the publishing companies.... and DELL.
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158570\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

aye, it's a shame.  Coming from Connecticut, where taxes are disgusting it's hard to swallow the fact that neigh 75 percent of our taxes go to education.  The whole thing needs to be restructured.  Here, we put in so much money into the system and yet, most of it gets swallowed at the top.  They always try ask for more money, but the problem isn't in a lacking of funds it's in uncessesary spending (here, that is.  We are spoiled brats education-wise)

--Fish
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=160286\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

[BarryW]

yeah... because American schools are sooooooo bloody well funded we can afford more expensive laptops.  ARRRGGGHHHHH!!
(sorry, I work in Education, and if roads were funded like schools we'd all be riding mules)
[div align=\"right\"][a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=158567\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a][/div]

 
Hey did you guys get in on the laptops for the 6th graders program?  I forget the real name.