The $100 laptop has more potential for bringing democracy to developing nations than divisions of tanks and guns. Those "servers in the sky" are not censored and controlled by conservative traditionalists in totalitarian or theocratic nations so the laptop users have access to news, information and discussions outside the rigid paradigms of their village or national politics or religion. Think of it as a whole new generation of seekers for OSINT.
Of course a big chunk of Barrett's negativism is probably generated by the fact that those laptops use AMD BIOS chips which cost little to make rather than Intel chips which, at best estimate, cost in the $40 dollar range to make. Microsoft not too happy either, as the laptops use Linux, an open source operating system, instead of Windows. Visions of a world of Linux users does not thrill Bill Gates. David Bier http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10397642/ Intel blasts '$100 laptop' as mere 'gadget' Customers in developing world want full PC functionality, CEO says Reuters Updated: 1:18 p.m. ET Dec. 9, 2005 COLOMBO - Potential computer users in the developing world will not want a basic $100 hand-cranked laptop that is due to be rolled out to millions, chip-maker Intel Corp. Chairman Craig Barrett said Friday. Schoolchildren in Brazil, Thailand, Egypt and Nigeria will begin receiving the first few million textbook-style computers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) media lab run by Nicholas Negroponte from early 2006. "Mr. Negroponte has called it a $100 laptop â" I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," Barrett, chairman of the world's largest chip maker, told a news conference in Sri Lanka. "The problem is that gadgets have not been successful." United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has welcomed the development of the small, hand-cranked lime-green devices, which can set up their own wireless networks and are intended to bring computer access to areas that lack reliable electricity. Negroponte said at their launch in November the new machines would be sold to governments for schoolchildren at $100 each but the general public would have to pay around $200, still much cheaper than the machines that use Intel's chips. But Barrett said similar schemes in the past elsewhere in the world had failed, and users would not be satisfied with the new machine's limited range of programs. "It turns out what people are looking for is something that has the full functionality of a PC," he said. "Reprogrammable to run all the applications of a grown-up PC ... not dependent on servers in the sky to deliver content and capability to them, not dependent for hand cranks for power." Barrett said Intel was committed to delivering IT access to the developing world â" and is helping Sri Lanka Telecom set up south Asia's first long-range WIMAX wireless network â" but would not produce a cut-price product like MIT's computer. "We work in the area of low-cost, affordable PCs, but full-function PCs," he said. "Not handheld devices and not gadgets." He said Intel was also expanding to Sri Lanka an IT teacher-training scheme it says has already reached 3 million schoolteachers worldwide, and praised local projects aimed at producing computer literacy. About 90 percent of Sri Lankans were literate but only 10 percent computer literate, he said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> AIDS in India: A "lurking bomb." Click and help stop AIDS now. http://us.click.yahoo.com/X6CDDD/lzNLAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint@yahoogroups.com Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
