this day in flapdoodle
Cheap Laptops Are Planned for KidsTUNIS, Tunisia (AP) - A cheap laptop boasting wireless network access and a hand-crank to provide electricity are expected to start shipping in February or March to help extend technology to school-aged children worldwide.
The machines are to sell for $100, slightly less than its cost. The aim is to have governments or donors buy them and give full ownership to the children.
[snip]
MIT Media Lab chairman Nicholas Negroponte, who unveiled the textbook-sized laptop on Wednesday, said he expects to sell 1 million of them to Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria.
Negroponte did not say who would build the machine, which will cost $110 to make, but at least five are considering bids to do so. He said a commercial version may be available at a higher price to subsidize machines provided to children.
[snip]
The devices will be lime green in color, with a yellow hand crank, to make them appealing to children and to fend off potential thieves.
Because thieves, of course, wouldn't be caught dead with a lime green computer.
Silly me, I thought Negroponte was gone, relegated to teaching communications skills to ag supply salesmen in Des Moines or something similarly more useful than his 90s gig as chief feather merchant to the digital revolution.