MUDGE’S Musings
Time to play catch up with the good stuff that has been piling up in the drafts section of MUDGE‘s Windows Live Writer.
Today, the latest on one of our most intriguing ongoing stories, that of One Laptop Per Child. Some previous posts, which go all the way back to mm088, can be found here and here.
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN
AP Technology WriterCAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — The One Laptop Per Child Program, which hopes to spread sub-$200 computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, has reached a milestone with the start of mass production.
The nonprofit spinoff from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said assembly lines for its “XO” laptops were fired up Tuesday at a Chinese factory run by manufacturer Quanta Computer Inc. That means children should begin getting the green-and-white computers this month.
[Please click the link below for the complete article — but then please come on back!]
The OLPC Give One Get One program, which, as they remind us, will be the only time the XO will be available to the public, begins Monday, 12-November-2007 and runs through 26-November.
And, remember L-HC’s take:
This is a wonderful cause, and I would think that people who would find a $399 purchase with a 50% charitable component affordable might also wish, as the story suggests, to donate the PC they’re entitled to to a (not third world, but certainly third rate) school in this country.
God knows that there are pockets of the third world within these preciously regarded borders of ours, many within our biggest cities. Then it becomes a $399 charitable contribution, serving to further education among the deserving needy in our own country as well as beyond.
If this promotion serves to prime the production pump, so as to assure economic deliveries to the nations like Peru and Mexico and Italy (for Ethiopia — now that’s fitting!) that have committed to the project, then it’s absolutely worthwhile.
As the giving season looms (the pumpkins are out, after all!), why not add OLPC’s “Give 1, Get 1” to your planning (orders to be taken Nov. 12–26); and as MUDGE recommends, just make that slight adjustment and you can call it “Give 1 (there), Give 1 (here).”
The world is all too full of extraordinarily worthy causes. This one works like planting a tree (two, actually): this initiative could make our world a smarter place. And smart is a quality in all too short supply.
It’s it for now. Thanks,
–MUDGE
Left-handed Complement 
I read about this project about 2 years ago.
Very humanitarian, but one needs some extra money
in order to buy 2 which is not the case of too many people
these days.
Marie
Maria,
I’m afraid that you are correct. Not too many people have $200 or $400 to donate, no matter how valuable the cause. We can only do what we can do. Meanwhile, to those of our readers who can, we urge them to consider the One Laptop Per Child Give One Get (or better yet, Give) One program. Remember, it runs only between 12-November-2007 and 26-November.
Maria, thanks for stopping by, and taking the trouble to comment.
–MUDGE
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