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Negroponte was never into this for money in the first place.
At least intel left before destroying Negroponte's OLPC initiative.
unless you consider the corruption that goes on in Kenya and
Nigeria to be the answer in "helping the poor" in those
geographies...
do you have a job and if so are you employed by others; if so
you are benefitting from someone else's "greed". if you run you
own business, then you are probably primarily motivated by
"greed". if you are still matriculating, once you remove yourself
from the great breast of knowledge, you may come around.
non-profits may work and help social conditions by large, but
their motivation s need to be strong enough to be relevant in a
for-profit market that exists.
If Intel can make good on a promise to make a $100 Classmate laptop, why should they stop selling it if the OLPC costs $200 and is too expensive for third world nations to buy, that they have to launch a "buy one get one" special at $400 to get one OLPC laptop, and then a third world nation child gets the other one?
[i]"Even more surprising, Intel is saying that the OLPC actually
asked the chipmaker to stop working with any company that
produces low-cost laptops, such as Asus' Eee PC."[/i]
1) Negroponte's project is not the one and only solution.
2) Demanding that a semiconductor company stop making/
supplying [i]all[/i] low-cost laptop chipsets for any other project
is stupid. No, really - it's a stupid demand.
This isn't an OS thing, either - Asus' Eee PC is also linux-based.
It costs $400 at base... not exactly something you sell to schools
in Africa...
I actually like what the OLPC is doing. They're providing the one
thing that may help the Third World get out of their mess -
education. But the demand that a corp give up a huge chunk of
their business --even non-related business-- just to
participate?
Negroponte is basically telling soup kitchen volunteers that they
must work only in the soup kitchen, hold no jobs as a cook
elsewhere, or else 'get the hell out'. Heaven Forbid that a fast-
food cook ever volunteer to work in the soup kitchen, right?
Might provide competition, and stuff...
You wouldn't tolerate a soup kitchen making that demand, and
you certainly wouldn't call the cook "greedy" for preferring to
continue keeping his job. So why do you suddenly lambast Intel
for doing the same thing?
Negroponte needs to check his ego, and fast... he's supposed to
be focused on charity, not on making sure he's the only guy who
can give a laptop to schoolchildren in need.
/P
The whole goal of OLPC was to get a $100 laptop to poor nations, and instead they jacked the price to $200. Failing that, Intel made the Classmate to reach that $100 mark. Seeing Intel succeed where they failed, OLPC got mad and told Intel to stop making the Classmate and supplying chips to cheap laptop makers, so OLPC can continue on in their MONOPOLY to third world nations and overcharge them $200 for a $100 laptop.
Third world nations need a $100 or under laptop. OLPC cannot reach that goal, but Intel, and Asus and others can. But OLPC wants to SABOTAGE the efforts of the other companies so they can control what third world nations get and at what price. Intel was helping out, but OLPC tried to BACKSTAB them so Intel pulled out.
Who cares who gets the $100 laptop to third world nations as long as they get them. OLPC is ripping people off by overcharging them $100 more than they promised to charge them for the OLPC project.
Tom, Dell would've definitely asked Intel to stop selling an Intel-branded laptop or desktop! So would HP and Apple. Intel is just supposed to be a component supplier, not competing against its own customers.
It seems that Negroponte cares more about moving *his* particular computer, than he does about his stated goal of helping poor children.
/P
Negroponte, in short, does not.
But now I'm sure you're going to tell me that the reason no one can seem to make inroads against Intel is because everyone else is incompetent...
Negroponte, take a hike!
OLPC is a CHARITY, Intel is a BUSINESS. You believe the business accusing the charity of acting like a rival business? Does this sound logical to you, at all?
Before passing judgement, the most elementary of respect is to listen to what the other side has to say.
As for those who praise Intel's integrity and attitude in the matter, they are forgetting how in the past, the company used its position to try run competitors out of business and that numerous cases were filed against it.
I am NOT saying that Intel is doing this right now. Just wanted to remind all of us that NO-ONE is pure and holy.
Let's just see what transpires from both sides
What they need is education.
Cheap laptops(from whatever source) is needed.
Apparently, many people in developed countries are in desperate need of education also.
Laptops of any description are temporary, delicate, and assume a level of infrastructure and support most societies (including the US) are unwilling to spend on education.
What developing countries truly need are the essentials--more and better textbooks, more and better teachers, more and better practical job training (as opposed to Internet surfing) ...
You get the idea.
The OLPC is a mere novelty in developed countries and in the hands of the people it's intended for... well, while it is empowering... it doesn't match the real world... It's promoted as a computer. My BlackBerry is a computer... but i don't call it that. I call it a phone. The OLPC is NOT a computer. It may mimic a computer and run many applications... BUT this is a upscale fisher price pre-school toy.
INTEL should have just skipped em to begin with.. In fact. If there's any sense at all out there... Both Intel and AMD should never even think about this product. It's A TOY! Put a Spiderman Logo on it and sell it at Wal-Mart!
If the goal of OLPC was to create an expesive "LEAP FROG" then CONGRATS!
As a unit in itself the OLPC is TERRIBLY EXPENSIVE.
Consider that it's nearly 200 dollar.
Now consider for less than 400 I purchased a dual core 1.7 ghz intel based laptop with a 15" wide screen, dvd burner, 120 gb hard drive, 2 gig of ram, wireless, gigabit, 4 USB ports, sound, etc etc etc... including Windows Vista too.
The was a BRAND NEW RETAIL price... The bang for my buck was very realized in comparison to the OLPC.
Now, one might say, well under 200 is far different from under 400. Yes, but take my $400 laptop (ok the one i bought for xmas as a gift, not mine anymore) put in a 20 gig drive, a 10" LCD panel, a slower single core processor. Remove the infared and so on. How soon before it's competing with the OLPC? Especially if you drop the OS in favor of linux (to compete fairly with the OLPC).
I'm TIRED of hearing about the OLPC. It's junk. It's a toy. We are all riled up about a 200 dollar toy for the poor. How much sense does that make?
and easily overpriced one at that.
But, given your rhetoric, I doubt very much if you've ever used
one, less seen one first hand; and clearly the certainty of your
position seems inversely related to your knowledge.
Your described $400 machine sucks energy by the ton and
wouldn't survive one day in the environments the XO is designed
to function in.
The XO can be hand charged via a crank, pedal or pull-cord?or
recharged by a directly connected solar panel. I suggest your
$400 machine can be recharged by plugging into 120V
centralized power grid only. The XO battery can be recharged
over 2000 times -- substantially more your hot $400 machine. The keyboard and touchpad?which are dust and water resistant
?has some special keys for additional functionality and is
configured to the language of the region. Your $400 machine
would be useless within the first hour and is useful for only
English language speakers -- I suppose that's okay since
English is God's language.
The XO screen renders in both color and black&white and can be
viewed even in direct sunlight. Your $400 machine wouldn't be
usable if there was any glare from the window of your $2k+
home.
Your $400 machine has a fan, whose purpose in the
environments that the XO will function in, will be to permanently
disable your machine. The XO has no fan and therefore is better
sealed -- it runs with much less energy and heat than your $400
behemoth.
"Get a clue" would be my recommendation!
There are millions of hungry and sick people in America, I guess we should stop progressing as well.
Sure, we can feed everyone on the planet today, and/or give every child a vaccination round. But what happens tomorrow morning? The folks you fed yesterday will still be hungry. The kids born after all those immunizations were given will still be without them.
Education is one of the very few avenues to help the poor and the needy get permanently out of the situation they are in.
These things aren't toys, they're tools.
/P
A few do and this project is not aimed at them.
Most do NOT!
What they lack is education.
A third world country will go nowhere without an educated citizenry. This is vital.
I prefer to get the facts from news articles and make up my own mind about who to side. I appreciate it when a writer takes the time to get as many facts as possible (and make sure they're correct). I just don't want to read "It would be sort of like if Dell asked Intel to stop selling HP and Apple Core 2 Duo chips" unless this is part of a question that OLPC had responded to.
To some extent, Intel is capatilizing on the idea. Not necessarily a bad thing. Ultimately, this competition may also help reduce the costs.
On another topic. I'm troubled that this is being touted as a PC. I have played with the device and I feel that it's rather toyish. It could be just as beneficial to supply these kids with a similar device that offers educational programming and entertainment value. If we really wanted to give them a PC, it should be something that is used in mainstream. Like a true Windows OR LINUX OR Mac machine.
what you knew. Suddenly all would be great with angels singing.
There would be food and Wii's for everyone and .....
Just where do you think OLPC founder, Nicolas Negroponte, comes from? He's an American, living in America, and used to be an MIT professor. So it's really funny when you refer to "that part of the world", which would be the United States. Perhaps you think that's the way business is conducted in the US, and you could be right. :-)
And obviously you have no knowledge of the project or its founder, outside of mainstream tech press. Here's a clue for you: mainstream tech press thinks the concept of OLPC is a huge waste of time and should be buried. That said, do you think they're going to give you an accurate rundown on the project? Of course not.
Though I'd have to agree with you that a lot of American organizations claim to want to assist the needy, but are really only interested in increasing their profit line. Like Intel and Microsoft.
Now, to go to the facts; no one told Intel to stop selling anything. What was requested was that Intel stop going to countries considering ordering the OLPC laptops and telling them of all the "major defects" in the system, and using their position on the BOARD as evidence that they would know. In short, Intel only joined the OLPC board so they could use it as a marketing technique for the Intel Classmate...
- I think you have the complete story
- by shanedr January 4, 2008 3:29 PM PST
- When I first heard of OLPC I thought it was a case of selfless devotion to an ideal. I have since come to believe that it now more ego trip than a service to poor child in third world countries.
- Like this Reply to this comment
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- Bzzt!
- by DarkPhoenixFF4 January 5, 2008 2:36 PM PST
- First of all, this is only half the story, of course. Intel is spinning it, like usual.
- Like this
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Showing 1 of 2 pages (87 Comments)Most likely it will be Intel and the rest of OLPC's competition that brings the third world into the computer age. A great idea now being destroyed by one man's ego.
And quite frankly, I wouldn't want Intel and Microsoft bringing ANYBODY into the computer age, considering the general damage they've done to computing in general already. It is estimated that Microsoft alone has cost the computing field 20 years of advanced knowledge due to their obsessive quest for monopoly control of all computing.