[geeks] $100 One Laptop Per Child - grist for the mill

[Phil Stracchino]

William Kirkland wrote:
> On Nov 18, 2006, at 9:20 AM, geeks-request at sunhelp.org wrote:
>> From: "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com>
>> I blogged about a satellite system that could be installed in a  
>> village
>> and provide data downloads for MP3 players, laptops etc. The cost of
>> the hardware with off the shelf components about $500, with custom
>> components around $300.
> 
> The difficulty here is that those people have more basic needs which  
> must be addressed before providing inexpensive laptops becomes useful.

Yeah.  $100 laptops, let alone satellite MP3 servers, are putting the
cart so far before the horse that the horse can't even see the cart.
The server's no use without the laptops, and for the price of the server
and those laptops they could have treadmill-powered generators, water
pumps, UV water sterilization systems to eliminate parasites and
bacteria from their drinking water....


-- 
 Same geek, same site, new location
 Phil Stracchino                     Landline: 603-429-0220
 phil.stracchino at speakeasy.net         Mobile: 603-216-7037
 Renaissance Man, Unix generalist, Perl hacker, Free Stater