[nzlug] OLPC and Harvard Business School

[Martin Bähr]

On Fri, Dec 21, 2007 at 01:55:30AM +1300, Nevyn wrote:
> Although part of their design goal was to make it appeal to kids, it
> had Intel saying it's a toy.

part of the design goal also was to make it not appeal to adults so the
adults won't take it away from the kids.

> As far as I know, the commercial sector hasn't offered alternative
> power supply options yet the OLPC project still seems to be failing.

huh? my grammar parser is getting confused.
i read this as "3rd party power supplies would contribute to the
projects failure, yet it is failing without them too."

i am sure you meant something different.

i think that
3rd party extensions to any product don't really come out until there is
a market for them which should take some time to build up.

the OLPC is being deployed in areas where people can't necesarily afford
3rd party extensions, making it less likely for any market to build.

so i don't think it makes sense for any 3rd parties to get involved at
the moment. the OLPC project is developing various powersupplies to meet
the different needs.

i don't think the project is failing.
rather i believe that the initial expectation of 3rd world countries
lining up to buy a million machines each was way to high.

i'd consider the project a failure only if the machine itself would fail
to have any positive effect on the children using them.

> The features in the laptop seem to be brilliant and geared towards the
> environments they're hoping to deploy them into such as being able to
> switch from a back-lit colour mode, to a self reflecting monochrome
> mode so that it can still be read in bright light.

i had the opportunity to see a presentation and demo of the machine in
vienna a few days ago, and i have seen the reflection mode in action.
quite nice really. 

> The mesh network which just sounds awesome to me.

especially the part that makes it work even if the machine is turned
off. the mesh stuff works without any operating system support and
networking is kept running even when the machine is being turned off.
the battery is supposed to keep networking up for two weeks.

i just asked a friend in the US to get me one through
http://laptopgiving.org/

initially i was not sure if i should get one, but after having played
with it, i think it's worth every cent.

i hope the "give one get one" campaign is successful enough that it will
be extended. this machine should really be offered everywhere and not
just in places where people can't afford computers.

greetings, martin.
-- 
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Martin Bähr       http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/