One Laptop Per Child

The OLPC project aims to design and create a ruggedized laptop for under US$100, suitable for purchase by educational bodies and children all around the world. The project is founded on the belief that getting cheap information devices into the hands of children will allow them to learn, communicate and presumably, hack the Linux kernel. The whole thing is one of those those out-there, stratospherically huge ideas that could completely change the world, do nothing at all, or spin off dozens of bizarre societal variations and mutations. Although the intended outcome is for children to become educated and empowered, no-one knows exactly what a million Nigerian kids will do with these things. They might form some kind of hive mind, or enable a new dark age of spam, or launch a new cybernetic revolution. My greatest fear is that it will create a million new entrants to African Idol, but it's unlikely they'll be any worse than the ones on the American show.

The unit itself has a 500Mhz CPU, 128MB of DRAM, 500MB of Flash memory, four USB ports, a webcam, WiFi and can run in color or black and white display modes. It runs Linux, and even has a hand crank for generating power when off the grid. It's a nifty little machine, and could be useful as an email station or portable porn viewer, although they'll probably be closer to $200 with all the associated duties and taxes in first world countries. The project became significantly more interesting recently with the arrival of their first B1 unit, and the pictures are pretty cool. The one with the webcam is particularly interesting, as it shows how people could use the device for video chat, which is a useful and human enough activity to get any Thai villager excited, particularly if their next door neighbour is a hottie. They even have a video of the OLPC running the original Doom, which is a standard benchmark for a new system. Having to open doors with the spacebar on an external keyboard kinda sucks, though.