[RANT] Negroponte's Laptop

Negroponte's laptop hit the fan again on a mailing list... it's not like I haven't had that discussion before. Nicholas Negroponte fired off a gun, and the bullet still ricochets... the $100 laptop that isn't a $100 laptop...

I mean - come on, are people going to their toilets, finding old Wired Magazine issues in stacks, and reading from the bottom? And then not even considering the actual issues of implementation?

People should quit smoking that funky stuff in the toilet. It would make Cheech and Chong cringe to hear this skit.

Thus, I posted this (emphasis added):

I've seen this all before, but the bottom line is that these are $100 million laptops since to get ONE, you have to spend $100 million. End of that myth. Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

The agencies that are supposed to pay for these laptops lack the
infrastructure to handle such an issue, or commercially available devices would be seeing at least limited but increasing usage at a steady rate. This did not happen, and was the premise for creating something.... that they did not have the infrastructure to support in the first place. Huh? Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

Nobody has talked about the curriculum changes necessary for integration of these laptops, which will drive the actual cost (not the Negroponte myth) up as instructors and administration gain training. Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

The hand crank broke off in Koffi Annan's hand during the demonstration. Every engineer worth their salt knows that the less moving parts - especially with children - the better. The problem is power usage, which has been beaten in Cell phones and the Simputer. Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

Arguments to these points - very pragmatic points - are called 'being negative'. Well, don't pass me the Kool-Aid on this one. This is all hype, substantiated with - nothing, nada, zip, zero. It's cyclic redundancy when you try to find facts. The facts are quite often lost in argument, especially in discussion or exchanges in rhetoric regarding this topic. Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

By the time the infrastructure issues and policy issues are handled such that they could support Negroponte's time consuming little hype machine that isn't even in construction (Start order of $10 million!), commercial machines will beat the snot out of what the dark bridge is offering. Gone. Dead. Bye.

Next.

Let's say these things actually get bought by some stupid government. Let's say that all of the people who say that this thing is a crock are wrong. I can deal with being wrong, so - here's the question: What Then? Everyone has a laptop. Everyone has a crank to play with. Gee. What are they going to do now? Is this like the [Slashdot] Open Source model? Program-->????--->Profit? Or is there some grand master plan? Of course there isn't. Gone. Dead. Bye.

I'd suggest a few rolls of 'Crime Scene' tape, and telling people to 'Move along, nothing to see here', and people focusing on actual things that can help their communities and facilities of learning instead of continuing to kick bad ideas around. The problem with shoveling... things... is that sooner or later, the person shoveling starts to smell like the things that they are shoveling.

Start talking about the infrastructure, you have something. And as at least 2 people pointed out, this thing was not really intended for the United States.

And all of this was written on a solar powered laptop using a solar powered wireless access point in a developing nation that was done by myself, out of my own pocket. It cost a lot more than $100, but a LOT less than $100 million.

I don't know what some advocates of Negroponte's laptop are smoking, but I really wish that they would share it with the rest of us. For our glaucoma, of course. It must be really bad if we can't see what they think is so obvious...

Now the picture up top? That's a Simputer that is in production, I have one, and it doesn't cost $100 million to order one.

Wake up and smell the feet you're sticking in your mouth, please. Geez...