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Thursday, November 22nd, 2007
10:02 pm
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Impulse Purchase
I got a bit carried away about a week ago and bought four laptops on a whim.

Yes, yes, you read that right. I'm only keeping one though.

Heard of the $100 laptop? It's kind of morphed into "One Laptop Per Child" (OLPC) cause they didn't quite hit the $100 goal but nonetheless. If you haven't, it's a program trying to send children in developing countries cheap, durable, good quality computers that they can learn on. An attempt to bring up the standard of education in these places.





I've been following the program for quite a while, and the laptops themselves are just BRILLIANT design... so cool -- I wish as much thought was put into the computers that we spend so much more on. And as long as I've been reading about them, I've really thought it would be cool to have one.

Well, in a stroke of genius -- I'm sure because they realize that all us technogeeks out there are totally fascinated by the project -- the OLPC peeps came up with "Give One Get One". Essentially, you buy two laptops, one as a donation to a child in a developing country, and one for yourself. I couldn't resist. And J and I decided that we should get a second for our nephew. Since, you know, they are actually designed for children, not 30-something technogeeks who just can't resist. Not to mention that I really believe in the program -- I'm happy to support it.

Should you be intrigued, you'd better act quickly -- it's a limited-time thing. Nov.12-Nov.26 ONLY. You should check out the laptop itself, nonetheless. It's a pretty awesome little piece of technology.

http://laptop.org

(5 comments | Leave a comment)

Comments
 
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From:[info]hobbitbabe
Date:November 23rd, 2007 - 01:53 pm
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Okay, that is cool. I know that their customers and end-users mostly don't need a standard spec sheet, but I'd like to see one. Also, I'm wondering whether it's got a CD drive, because I can't see it.
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From:[info]hobbitbabe
Date:November 23rd, 2007 - 02:15 pm
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Okay, now I found the spec sheets. It's still cool. Every time I am wavering on whether to invest in some new gadget, what pushes me over the top is thinking how much the Shads would like it ... hmmm ... The next thing I haven't quite figured out is whether the Get One donors get a human-power charger thing (crank or pull cord) with it, or whether that's still in development ...
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From:[info]hobbitbabe
Date:November 23rd, 2007 - 02:32 pm
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But really, it would be much cooler to have two or more around, so you can see that mesh networking, collaborative writing, etc. in action.
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From:[info]shaav
Date:November 23rd, 2007 - 07:10 pm
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True enough.

BUT STILL. ;)
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From:[info]laughingmagpie
Date:November 25th, 2007 - 05:25 pm
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Dr Smith and I are both intrigued. You're always the first on the block to get the best gadgets!

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