Negroponte, OLPC, AAAS, obese electronics

[Ben Scott]

On Feb 19, 2008 10:49 AM, Paul Lussier <p.lussier at comcast.net> wrote:
>> Interesting post about Nicholas Negroponte's keynote at the AAAS annual
>> meeting. I like the phrase 'obese electronics.'
>
> Electronics are not obese.  They are getting faster and smaller all the time.
> Electronics is a cut-throat industry with incredibly small margins as it is.
> What is obese is software, not hardware.

  He's using "electronics" as reference to products, in the Consumer
Electronics market.  Not the science/technolgy.  And he's right,
although not particularly original.  It's been observed by many for
years that companies keep adding "new" "features" that people don't
really want, solely to justify the upgrade treadmill.  I don't want a
cell phone with a camera, or MP3 player, or removable storage, or any
other damn thing.  I want it to make phone calls.  But it's very hard
to find a phone that just makes phone calls these days.

  This is certainly not limited to Consume Electronics products, of
course.  The "compelling reason to upgrade" problem applies to lots of
products.  Look at Microsoft: They pump out a new version of Word
every couple of years, but when it comes right down to it, there
really isn't all that much you can do to improve a word processor.
Especially when you need to justify a $100 price tag.  Or cars, for
that matter.  This year's model has round tail-lights; last year's had
square tail-lights.  Clearly you need to buy the new model!

  I could make the same remark about Linux distros.  It's a bit
different in that one is often not paying cash for the upgrade
treadmill -- instead we've just all convinced ourselves it's a
feature.  ;-)  I know Fedora sometimes seems to be doing "change for
the sake of change".  While trying new ideas is part of their mandate,
I still think it could stand to be more directed.

> The OLPC ultimately failed ...

  It failed?  Did Netcraft confirm it?  ;-)

  I think OLPC is a somewhat ill-concieved idea, but last I heard, the
OLPC program wasn't dead.  The investors have deep pockets and lots
more money to waste on it.  Although I think it's currently the
OLP1.7C (one laptop per 1.7 children), if you compare the present
price with the original $100 target.

-- Ben