One Laptop Per Child pledge

[David Ecklein]

I don't understand this fixation on laptops.  These are commodities for the
affluent, costing twice as much when new as desktops.  They have far less
upgrade capability, the screens are delicate and hard to repair, the mouse
and keyboard are compromises.  The cases are fragile and often have
proprietary form factors and parts, inhibiting inexpensive repairs.  The
sole asset of a laptop is portability, which many college students have
found turns into a liability: they are one of the most stolen items on
campus.

IMHO, this laptop promotion is being done for reasons other than the benefit
of school children, whether here or abroad.

I would rather see an effort mounted to refurbish the many usable desktops
that are going to the dump every day.  The participation of high school
computer and science clubs could be enlisted; there is more standardization
with desktops than with laptops, and you don't need special tools or skills
with the latter.  Since flat screens are trendy and recently relatively
affordable, new CRT monitors are selling for a song, usable used ones are so
plentiful the Salvation Army and Goodwill no longer accepts them.  I thought
the rise of Linux would make recycling desktops an obvious project (an OS
not as demanding as, say, XP), but now I am not so sure.  As my Filipina
mother-in-law used to say, common sense is not so common.

Dave Ecklein


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard A Sharpe" <rasharpe at earthlink.net>
To: <gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org>
Cc: <rasharpe at earthlink.net>
Sent: Saturday, May 27, 2006 4:32 PM
Subject: RE: One Laptop Per Child pledge


>
> I'd support this project if it were to get a laptop in every household in
> the USA but third world I don't think so, let's start thinking about
taking
> care of our own first the rest of the world.
>
> Rich
>
> Richard A Sharpe
> 8 Meadowview Lane
> Merrimack, NH 03054
> "Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you, not
because
> they are kind, but because you are."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnhlug-discuss-admin at mail.gnhlug.org
> [mailto:gnhlug-discuss-admin at mail.gnhlug.org] On Behalf Of Christopher
> Schmidt
> Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 10:27 PM
> To: Fred
> Cc: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> Subject: Re: One Laptop Per Child pledge
>
> On Fri, May 26, 2006 at 10:01:52PM -0400, Fred wrote:
> > Anyway, just to add my own $0.02, I don't see the $100 PC making much f
a
> > difference -- unless it can connect to the Internet. Otherwise the
"third
> > world" will be limited to whatever content and software their respective
> > governments will allow to be installed on those PCs.
>
> Er. The machines are running Linux -- Fedora Core or some RedHat
> variant? -- and the machines are designed to create ad-hoc wireless
> networks.
>
> > Oh, and unless these PCs can be run with a hand crank or solar cells,
> still
> > pretty useless in many parts of the world. And with the typical power
> > consumption of laptop CPUs, that's a lot of hand cranking. And I don't
see
>
> > how you can keep the costs down to $100 if you have to include solar
> cells.
>
> Hand cranks or other similar alternative power options have always been
> the plan for the $100 OLPC laptops. The earlier marketing materials have
> always included pictures including a hand crank. There's ongoing
> discussion within the project as to how to accomodate the power needs of
> the laptop without depending on people to have wall sockets.
>
> Note that the laptops have no hard drives (flash only), relatively small
> screens, and are designed to run in black and white mode most of the
> time for better power consumption.
>
> Also note that these aren't PCs...
>
> I think that either you or I is completely misunderstanding the purpose
> of the project, or suffering under some similarly constricting
> misunderstanding. Care to enlighten me as to which it might be?
>
> -- 
> Christopher Schmidt
> Web Developer
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