Talk:One Laptop per Child/Archive 2

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Contents

Apple Patent Filing

Certain Apple Computer employees have applied for a US patent for a design that might be found in the $100 Laptop Prototype. An article detailing the patent filing can be found here. An image of the patent filing is here. --Munchkinguy 01:51, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Environmental impact

For a computer that will be built by the millions there is little information publicly available about it's environmental impact specially in poor regions (should it be 100% recyclable?).

This was posted in the article by 200.1.17.49. It seems speculative and a bit original research. Can this be re-added with sources for the criticism? --GregoryWeir 18:00, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Additionally, I mentioned removal of a link in my reversion summary... I've realized that I was mistaken. No links were removed. Sorry about that. --GregoryWeir 18:03, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

Saying there is no research (or information available) is not itself original research. All it shows is the author was trying to research his or her subject (in the secondary sense). However, it does have an inappropriate editorial tone to it. —Pengo 23:04, 15 March 2006 (UTC)

The environmental impact is an important issue with this project and it should be indicated in the criticism section. Consider for a moment that millions of the 100 dollar laptops will be left laying around after they are not used anymore (in 1, 10, 15... years).

Computers tipically use toxic heavy metals (e.g Mercury, Lead, Cadmium) and some countries (e.g. Europe) have passed legislature to remove these metals from computers [1]. Heavy metals have well documented adverse health effects relating to cancers (arsenic, cadmium), genetic damage (mercury) and bone and damage (mercury, copper, and lead)[2].

Also consider that there is no recycling plan and no discussion of the environmental impact anywhere to be found: in the manufacturer web site [3] or elswhere [4]. Having a small environmental impact should be a design goal from the beginning. It is important to generate discussion about this so that use of heavy metals is minimized in the 100 dollar laptop. --TomasArredondoV.

rough but working or non-working prototype?

In the beginning paragraphs it is written: "Negroponte showed a non-working* prototype of the laptop on November 16, 2005 at the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis. However, the device shown was a rough prototype, as there is still work on the development of the device for both performance and price. Negroponte estimated that the screen alone required three more months of development. The laptops are scheduled to be available by the end of 2006 or early 2007.

   * Nobody has actually seen a working prototype."

So which is it? It would seem that the part about "non-working* prototype", and it's footnote, has been added latter, which makes the paragraph self-contradictory. Since the prototype worked at the WSIS presentation, as I'm sure some of the external links tell and show, this peculiar footnote is wrong and should be deleted.

Constructionism vs constructivism

I believe the term/idea that Seymour Papert pioneered is constructionism (see "The Children's Machine," Papert, 1993). Constructivism as it relates to learning theory is often attributed to Jean Piaget's work on cognitive development. Although constructionism is influenced by constructivism, the two are not the same. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.61.45.231 (talk • contribs)

Their wiki mentions "constructivist" [5]
Their FAQ mentions "constructionist" and Papert [6]
Looks like the FAQ knows what it's talking about and constructionism is the correct term. Thanks for pointing this out. I've fixed the link, and I encourage you to just edit pages directly in future. —Pengo 07:36, 31 March 2006 (UTC)

No more hand crank

It appears that we need to edit references to the hand crank as this idea has been scrapped according to Negroponte.

As initially envisioned, the laptops sported a hand crank on the side to generate power, but Negroponte has scrapped that idea because the twisting forces that would be bad for the machine. Instead, some form of power generation device, likely a pedal, will be attached to the AC power adapter, he said.
"I was the longest holdout for the crank being on the laptop. I was wrong," he said, adding, "If you're a 10-year-old, maybe you can get your four-year-old to pedal for you." - http://news.com.com/Negroponte+Slimmer+Linux+needed+for+100+laptop/2100-7346_3-6057456.html?tag=nefd.lede - Willy Arnold 20:56, 4 April 2006 (UTC)
According to this the crank will still be available, it will just not be on the device itself, but on the AC adapter. jacoplane 08:14, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

No benefits?

I see a section on criticism, on history and construction, participants... but almost nothing about the potential benefits.--Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus Talk 17:00, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Indeed. If you can write a referenced section, that would be a good addition to the article. jacoplane 17:08, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

Linux based

The computers will use windows CE for its OS, not linux. ;(

The computers will use whatever software (including the OS) each participating country wants to use. This has been made very clear from the beginning. One of the initial OLPC partners, Red Hat, has been working very hard on a version of Linux optimized for the project. And that is what OLPC will supply. What Negroponte has said is that there are negotiations with Microsoft to get Windows CE running on OLPC hardware so that any country that prefers that to Linux can get it (from Microsoft).--Jecel 21:44, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

The question is that microsoft would have to be willing to give in the long term free or low cost licence for the project?Tjb891 01:58, 24 May 2006 (UTC)

Domain for page

Are people purchasing domains that redirect to Wikipedia pages? See http://onelaptopperchild.org/. --hello, i'm a member | talk to me! 04:08, 17 April 2006 (UTC)

moved from article text

I moved the following addition here (removed it from the article, that is) becuase it was unsourced and had an editorial feel to it. Tlogmer (Talk / Contributions) 08:46, 22 April 2006 (UTC)

License Problems

Since Linux is distributed under a GNU General Public License, the license used for the $100 laptop clearly needs some changes. It will be next to impossible for changes made and distributed on a small scale somewhere in Africa to meet with the GNU license. Most of these problems will be gone once (wireless) Internet access becomes widely available troughout Africa, but as long as the $100 laptop uses mesh-like connectivity there are bound to be problems.

Violations of the GNU license stemming from reduced communication should be allowed. If this proves to be impossible, a BSD style system is needed. The only (BSD license) operating system that has it's own utilities (including a compiler) that has seen any practical use is Minix. Besides the less restrictive license, Minix has a much smaller footprint. And since one of the goals of Minix[7] is to be an educational system, it might make a better match than GNU/Linux.
It would be helpful if there was a clearer explanation given as to why it will be "next to impossible for changes made and distributed on a small scale somewhere in Africa to meet with the GNU license." --Walter Bender
This is all nonsense. All the GPL requires is that copies of the modified software include the source code or a "written offer, valid for at least three years, to give any third party, for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code..." (see section 3b and 3c of the license). There is no reason why this could not be done or delivered upon by people with $100 laptops in Africa. There are no communication problems because the only time the license could be violated is when there is communication. I'm at a loss to understand the original post's concerns. —Pengo 01:35, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Unrelated criticism

The criticism section includes the following paragraph:

Also Red Hat is taking some heat [10] for wraping Linux up in “proprietary sh*t.” For those critics it must be unacceptable to see Red Hat be piggybacked into an unsuspecting Africa.

The associated reference [8] seems to be about 1.5 year old comments from the head of Marc Fleury about Red Hat with respect to sharing J2EE services revenue (from my reading). It makes no reference to the $100 laptop or the software being developed for it.

If there aren't any better references for this criticism, it should either be deleted or moved to a criticism section of the Red Hat article. --James 03:05, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

Comment moved from article

I think what we may be missing is that the people need things that cost money. Basic computer skills can be very important to making a living even in these areas. When the children grow up they can communicate about better crops, jobs and healthcare. Perhaps some of them will grow up to be the doctor the village needs. We need to look at short term goals of food and long term goals of food for the next generation. Countries had to deal for this for centuries. -- added by 24.136.234.101, moved here by Singkong2005 04:15, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Competition "great"

After about an hour of searching news articles and finding nothing, I've removed the following text from the article:

Some of Negroponte’s friends told him Microsoft might then attempt to craft its own version of the laptop, but he responded such a development would be "great"[citation needed], as it would speed up the process of delivering cheap laptops.

Replace it only if you can find a source, please. Fieari 19:29, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Confused about the Display

There are a few things about the display that I don't understand.

All the photos make it look like the display has at least a slight widescreen aspect ratio, but all the specs indicate that it will have a 4:3 ratio. Will it have non-square pixels? (That's a potential disaster for viewing images, video, and most software like games.) Do the photos only make it look widescreen and if I saw one in person I'd see it was 4:3?

The grayscale/black & white eBook mode somehow has a higher resolution that goes through the same screen as the LCD, but is not an even 4 times the area (twice height, twice width). Will this somehow make eBook images blurry? I'm not clear how a color LCD and grayscale/black & white eBook mode can exist in the same space.

I swear I've read at least 3 or 4 resolutions for the color and black and white displays. What is it actually going to be and why can't they pin it down at something exact? I personally would want the color LCD to be 640x480 and the grayscale/black & white eBook mode to be exactly 1280x960 so four eBook pixels would map to one LCD pixel. This would also make images and text from one map to the other more precisely.

None of the prototypes refelct the actual display. It will be 1200×900, 7.5 inch, square pixel display. In "sunlight" mode, every pixel will be grayscale. In "backlight" mode every third pixel is red, green, or blue, hence it is 3:1 black and white pixels to color pixels. Walter.bender 13:52, 11 June 2006 (UTC)

Low cost computer

This is a request for input on a related non-Wikipedia project. In connection with the Appropedia (Appropriate technology wiki) I've made an info-page/how-to-guide for those wanting a Low cost computer (including how to make use of old computers). I thought that editors of this page might have the knowledge to help on this. Thanks --Singkong2005 (t - c - WPID) 16:45, 28 June 2006 (UTC)

Comment

I just dont understand, Why is the 100 dollar laptop only for the goverment? They could be selling the laptop to normal people Worldwide and then with all that money they would get, they would then make the laptops for the goverments that need the laptops... Because I think this is is Exellent laptop but, still, if sold world wide in a normal market like Apple or IBM or HP, it will be a great success, because not only would any person have access to technology world wide but every one would have some sort of advantage on their homes, and then when they have enough money from the world wide sales then maybe they could make more laptops for more goverments.

I think there are several answers. They have talked about the possibility of a commercial version selling at around $300. Remember that commercial sales add substantial additional costs for advertising, distribution, warrantee service, post sales support, etc. There is perhaps a bigger issue, however. Enterprises that start out addressing all possible markets often fail because their resources are spread too thin and they wander too far from their core expertise. The organizers of this project are basically educators, not businessmen. Their goal is to improve education for children poor areas. If they lose that focus, there is a good chance they will simply become another laptop manufacturer, maybe successful, maybe not, but the educational goal will fall by the wayside. On the other hand, if the project succeeds, it may well spawn a new category of lower cost computers that others will make and sell commercially. --agr 14:06, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

To every child?

Will these $100 laptops go to every child even if they have a laptop at home they use? Jam01 22:47, 8 July 2006 (UTC)

Inunderstandable gobbelydok ?

What exactly does Media: extended length to allow learning to write mean ? The computer has a extra long media ? What is a long media anyway ? How would having that help learning to write ? It sounds like babble to me, are anyone able to decode this ? Clarify it ? Delete it ? --Eivind 11:49, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

There seems to be something broken with the template. Whatever text that is put in the touchpad field shows up in the media field. I commented out the touchpad field so that the "gobblygook" problem is masked for the time being.--Walter.bender 20:55, 3 August 2006 (UTC)