plattypus1
join:2005-04-08
Riverside, CA
 ·Charter Pipeline
| Textbooks.
I can't understand why some of my fellow technophiles can be so dense, pardon my bluntness.
Do you have any idea how much it costs a school to purchase textbooks over the life of a child? The costs are extortionate, and developing nations couldn't even dream of providing children with enough printed textbooks to go around, at least ones with relevant information.
That's where the laptops come in. The nation can purchase a much cheaper electronic textbook, or simply rely on the wealth of information freely available on the internet. These laptops are dirt-cheap textbooks.
Also, as far as the internet thing goes, there are many villages in the developing world that are getting solar-powered television/satellite internet kiosks already. Stick a cheap wi-fi router in there (less than $20 in volume), throw in mesh networking and suddenly every child in the town has access to the internet. It may not be fast, but it's there. Hell, stick the access point at the school, where in many cases there is an electricity solution in place. Put it on a blimp over the jungle or savannah. Don't forget that the underpriveledged also live in cities. Use your imagination, and the possibilities are truly endless.
P.S. To Intel, re: "It turns out what people are looking for is something is something that has the full functionality of a PC, Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown up PC..." Just because it's only a 400-500Mhz processor that happens to run Linux doesn't mean it's not a "grown-up PC" and that it doesn't have "full functionality." |
