Thu 27 Sep 2007
From NiRbashito
Please check out the campaign “One Laptop Per Child — XO Giving” at www.laptop.org or www.xogiving.org
The possible issues for discussion are:
i) Can/should NRB’s join/support this campaign?
ii) I see the keyboard accommodates a number of languages, but maybe not Bangla: can our hackers take a shot and make it easily portable BD? After all, it’s based on open source.
iii) In BD, this laptop may serve not so affluent adults esp in remote areas just as well as their children — thus rendering Dr. M. Yunus’s so-called “pipedream” one step closer to reality!
Thank you for your kind attention.
September 28th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I’ve been tracking the OLPC since the B2 version, and while it’s gotten better (they’re at revision B4 now), it still has bugs. Prices are also spiralling… it was originally supposed to be available for $100; reports now suggest that it costs $188.
Software-wise it’s innovative, but like the op said, it’s open source, so as soon as it’s available, the code can be ported to other systems and be run on dirt cheap desktops, bypassing the need for the OLPC laptop altogether.
As regards language customization: I am opposed to it. Don’t give it to adults, give it to children, who will then be forced learn the lingua franca (english) of computing in the process and be ready to take part in the global technology enviroment.
Not what you wanted to hear, I know… but I would suggest holding off for now. The technology is simply too raw, and we don’t have the expertise on the ground in Bangladesh to trailblaze such a huge technology deployment. Wait for some other guinea pig countries to try it out on a large scale, see if they succeed and only then buy into the project.
October 4th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
A couple of low wattage light bulbs that we dont own or a very slow fan. if you could store enough energy, perhaps a crops could be dried or even a small amount of water constantly drawn from the ground.
December 2nd, 2007 at 5:46 am
I’m trying to draw your attention to this one more time because the deadline for XO’s “Give One, Get One” offer has been extended till Dec 31. You pay $399 (from anywhere in the contiguous US) plus $24 S&H, and one of these laptops (open source, Linux based) gets shipped to you while another goes to some village in Afghanistan, or Africa.
But wait!!! Here’s the catch:
(1) If we can get 100 donors banded together, we can dictate where 100 of these laptops should go: Bangladesh is not currently on their list. So, we have an opportunity to change that.
(2) This offer is valid for only those living in the US: an additional benefit for you will be, with your own XO laptop, you will get ONE year’s subscription to T-Mobile Wireless Hotspots (bookstores, cafes, airports, etc) for FREE — apparently a deal worth $350!
In less than the 30 days or so remaining for this offer, can we get 100 of us committed to this cause?
We could target a village, or even a whole DISTRICT, if not a division, for experimentally distributing these self-powered, self-communicating laptops. In addition to being an info-technology learning tool, these will work as a means of communication: the laptops work both as HUBS and clients as long as there’s another laptop within a 50 mile radius, thus creating its own WIRELESS network!
Perhaps these will be of use in some remote area yet to be brought under the mobile phone network. And did I mention that the whole thing including its keyboard is waterproof?
Besides, as I had mentioned earlier, perhaps this will also inspire a Bangladeshi linux guru (or two) into further developing the operating system to incorporate a Bangla-based interface, which will render these laptops into a critical literacy tool.
Please send in your thoughts ASAP.