Update: Wired 14.08: The Laptop Crusade
Klaus D. Witzel
klaus.witzel at cobss.com
Thu Aug 10 05:55:16 UTC 2006
About the 100$ laptop (not much about software, still in the hw design
stage).
quote "In January 2005 MIT Media Lab cofounder Nicholas Negroponte
unveiled the One Laptop Per Child project, an initiative to design and
distribute an ultracheap, lightweight, and intuitive portable PC to poor
children throughout the world, at the World Economic Forum. The project
called for a highly ruggedized machine equipped with radio antennas for
networking in the absence of satellites or towers; a dual-mode display
that shifts to monochrome in bright light; and a way for generating power
that facilitates indefinite operation without an electrical outlet. Among
those invited to design the laptop was fuseproject owner Yves Behar, who
suggested a compact and sealable form factor that, in his words,
"shouldn't look like something for business that's been colored for kids."
An earlier version of the laptop featured a handcrank to generate power,
but this was eliminated after it was determined that gripping the crank
with one hand and the laptop with the other would cause the machine to
shake, placing excessive strain on the hardware. The latest version of the
laptop, priced at about $140, features a kid-friendly design and colors
that deter theft; a hollow handle that holds a shoulder strap; built-in
VoIP and Skype; 802.11b/g antennas with a range of half a mile; custom
batteries with a five-year lifespan; LEDs in place of a fluorescent
backlight; a rubberized plastic shell to absorb shocks; 512 MB of flash
memory and 200 GB of storage through a mesh-networked server; a 366 MHz
processor and 128 MB of RAM; a bare-bones version of Redhat Linux; a
seamless touchpad that allows handwriting and drawing; and the ability to
swivel to ebook mode. Behar designed every laptop component to be
multifunctional: For instance, the computer's antennas are movable "ears"
that can swivel down to shield the laptop's ports.
" unquote.
- http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/laptop.html
/Klaus
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