1 Million OLPCs Already On Order

alphadogg writes "Quanta Computer has confirmed orders for 1 million notebook PCs for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. The article goes into some background on the project, and lays out the enthusiastic adoption that the project is seeing overseas. The company estimates they'll ship somewhere between 5 and 10 Million units this year, with 7 countries already signed up to receive units. The machines currently cost $130, but with that kind of volume the original goal of $100 a machine may be viable. Even with the low cost, Quanta expects to make a small profit on each machine, making charity work that much easier."

Eureka! The Missing Step!

[Anonymous Coward]

1. Make a $100 laptop
2. Charge $130
3. Profit!

Spam

[crapjunk123]

Just what I need, more spam from Nigeria...

Great!

[bobcat7677]

Now every child, even the poor ones, can have access to the vast porn resources of the internet!

Re:The Equal Opportunity World of the Future

[Golias]

What ends up happening is they teach the kid to use a crutch. Instead of practicing arithmetic, they let kids in grade 3 (!) just use calculators. My kids only know the times tables because I *made* them learn it. Flashcards and practice, just like I did (I had a hard time with it too). They already forgive me for it. My son is seen as a "math prodigy", to use his teachers words - and quite frankly (not to denigrate him), his abilities are what I would consider average for his age. He isn't like moved on to precalculus on his own, or anything like that. He can add, subtract, multiply and divide simple numbers in his head. This makes him a prodigy in the modern US education system. ouch.

Repeat for spelling. The school could give a shit. Here's how spelling is taught - "OK KIDS, CLICK SPELL CHECK". They're, there, their, who cares.

Likewise, home economics classes should not use gas or electric oven ranges. The kids should first learn how to rub sticks together to create fire, and roast mastodon meat on sticks from beasts which they speared themselves. What hope do they have to get by in the modern world without such basic survival skills?

Repeat for history and philosophy. Okay kids, open your "text book" and READ about the wisdom of Aristotle. No need to be paired up with (and sexually molested by) a tribal elder who will teach you everything via oral tradition! What a joke!

Call me old fashioned if you must, but I jist don't cotton to these new-fangled "printing presses" and what-not. All you need for education is a good teacher and a solid stick of hickory!

Schools today are going to hell in a bucket, I tells ya!

just call it the 99 EUR laptop

[cesc]

I can't believe this guys are so bad at marketing, how can they sell a $130 anything? It's marketing 101 guys: prices must end with 99!

Poor guys, where so unlucky, who would have thought back then that Bush would sunk the dollar with his toy wars? I'd recommend them to switch their pricing to a solid, stable currency which enables them to express their price in the usual x99 format. For example the Euro. According to Saint Google:

130 U.S. dollars = 99.3807813 Euros [google.com]

Gee, Brain, what are we going to do tonight?

[Gordo_1]

The same thing we do every night Pinky, build a million OLPC botnet and try to take over the world!