
On One Laptop per Child - ph0rque
http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2009/07/28/on-one-laptop-per-child/
======
TrevorJ
Am I the only one who thinks that for some children, the last thing they need
if for somebody to shove a computer on them?

I use computer every single day in my professional and personal life. I love
them. But I am _eternally_ grateful to my parents that they didn't give me
unlimited access to one till High School.

I would have missed out on untold hours of playing outdoors, building things,
taking things apart and generally just learning about the world if somebody
had shoved a laptop at me when I was 8 or 9.

~~~
pmorici
That's goes along with a point people often miss. Giving a computer to a child
isn't going to automatically impart vast amounts of wisdom. A computer much
like a book or a pencil is a tool of learning. The child still has to use it
in the right way to learn anything.

It's always irked me a bit when people try to pin low achievement in schools
on lack of computers.

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TomOfTTB
On the topic of flat out silly defenses I think this takes the cake. A few
things...

First, supposedly Mr. Negroponte "ended the discussion of whether computers
belong in children’s hands". Umm...Does anyone remember this discussion?
Because I can’t recall a time where people were saying kids shouldn’t have
computers. Who exactly was making that argument?

Second, he supposedly "answered the question of whether inexpensive computers
can be useful." But the very argument that’s coming up more and more lately is
one that points out these computers weren’t terribly useful because they had
tons of flaws. Don’t get me wrong, I believe inexpensive computers can be
useful but I don’t believe that was proven by Mr. Negroponte.

Finally, note that rather than give actual accomplishments she quotes a
projected figure to justify the actions of OLPC. In my life I’ve learned that
people who quote projections as accomplishments are usually the ones who have
no actual accomplishments to point to.

In the end, this post is nothing more than misplaced hero worship.

~~~
jacobolus
Mary Lou Jepsen has a list of accomplishments pages long, and is one of the
most brilliant people I’ve ever met. You should be careful about tossing
around vague inanities like “… usually the ones who have no actual
accomplishments …” which aside from sounding pretentious don’t add in the
least to the discussion.

In any case, I think you misunderstood: this is the projected number of cheap
netbook-like laptops which will be sold (that’s between several companies),
not the number of XOs, and the numbers are reasonably reliable a year or two
out, because they actually have to gear up to manufacturing these things at
scale well in advance of making them.

I think it’s without question that OLPC and Nicholas’s pushing on the public
consciousness, and as importantly on hardware vendors, has sped by at least a
few years the pace of cheap laptop production. There really weren’t any
sub-$400–500 laptops before Nicholas was talking about them 4–5 years ago, and
now there’s an exploding market. Most hardware manufacturers (not to mention
pundits and “technologists” and so forth) laughed in his face because they
said the margins would be too low to make sense, and the components couldn’t
be had for the price. Then at some point he convinced Quanta to jump on board,
and everyone started looking really closely.

(disclaimer: I spent a year at OLPC as an intern)

~~~
TomOfTTB
I note you don't list said accomplishments. Good intentions are not in
themselves accomplishments. Sure the media will love you for "creating a $100"
computer but if that computer doesn't actually help who you said it would that
isn't an accomplishment..

Bottom Line: Defending one's accomplshments by saying they have
accomplishments is circular logic

If anything I'm more weary of her for using a non-profit to develop technology
she's now trying to sell while all the while selling flawed, next to useless
computers to poor kids. (I suspect her intentions were good for the record all
I'm saying is the facts paint a picture that is suspect)

~~~
jacobolus
Are you for real?

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lou_Jepsen>

Quoting from there, since it’s easier: “She co-created the first holographic
video system in the world at the MIT Media Lab in 1989 [...] At OLPC, notably,
Jepsen invented the laptop's sunlight-readable display technology.” You don’t
get put in charge of the technology for displays at Intel (her job before
OLPC) by being unaccomplished.

Here’s a (non-exhaustive, I think) list of her patents:
[http://www.google.com/patents?q=mary+lou+jepsen&btnG=Sea...](http://www.google.com/patents?q=mary+lou+jepsen&btnG=Search+Patents)

Several of those, like the OLPC dual-mode display, are _really_ clever (better
than anything else of the kind, feasible to manufacture on existing fabs, no
more expensive than existing displays, etc.).

Also, your implication that her involvement with OLPC was “suspiciously”
predatory (or for that matter the implication that OLPC on the whole is some
kind of exploitative scam) is a cheap insult below the expected level of this
forum. Really bright high-level engineer–executives who take out a few years
of their careers to work at well below pay grade for non-profit companies
trying to change the world should be lauded, in my book.

~~~
TomOfTTB
This is exactly my point. Your argument boils down to the OLPC is great no
matter what so anyone who dares question it or her is wrong by default.

For the record, this didn't start out as an attack on Ms. Jepsen who I said
probably had good intentions. My point is people like her go around thinking
their good intentions mean something without end results. So they end up
pushing things like the OLPC which hurt more than they help. Then they laud
themselves and their partners for having been such great people and done such
a great thing and shade their eyes from all the flaws.

Every reports I've heard has said the OLPCs have major hardware and software
problems and my own died pretty shortly after I opened it up. Selling PCs like
that to third world countries deprives those kids of actual working PCs which
in my book is a bad thing

Also, I didn't mean to malign Ms. Jepsen's technical accomplishments which are
impressive. But when I referred to "accomplishments" I was talking in the
sense of "making products that make a difference in the word" which is exactly
what I think she thinks she accomplished and which I dispute.

(I can't reply to your comment below for some reason but let me just say this.
The arguments that have been made in the last few days that suggest the OLPC
is flawed are perfectly valid. The only people I've seen deny them are people
like you who worked for the project. So assuming those flaws are real (again,
I'm living proof since mine broke 2 weeks out) imagine a country who bought
1000 OLPCs for 1000 kids rather than 500 Windows or Linux PCs. Now if those
OLPCs are flawed than those kids have been deprived of computers. The fact
that you can't see that just goes to show your hero worship of a project that
has clearly not met it's goals)

~~~
jacobolus
> _“This is exactly my point”_

Actually, no, you shifted the goal posts twice.

> _“Your argument boils down to the OLPC is great no matter what.”_

You’re putting words in my mouth. Where did I argue that?

> _“hurt more than they help”_

Have any evidence (or even reasoning) to back that up?

> _“shade their eyes from all the flaws”_

Do you have any evidence that Mary Lou has done that? Nicholas has, in public
perhaps (though I’d be cautious to say that even).

> _“deprives those kids of actual working PCs”_

Can you back that up with a plausible explanation? As far as I can tell, not a
single person has been “deprived” of a PC because of the OLPC project, and
you’re the only one who is suggesting so.

* * *

This is a very narrow discussion, in which you insulted and maligned someone
with no cause, and I called you out on it, and then you tried to make it stick
rather than apologizing as would be appropriate for a reputable discussion. I
haven’t made any claims about everything else being great, or anything of the
kind, and I don’t even really see how you’re reading that into any of my
statements.

* * *

Edit:

> _“ people like her go around thinking their good intentions mean something
> without end results.”_

I also want to push back on this point. First, good intentions + deliberate
action really does mean something, even in the unlikely even that they have no
result. I personally think there is nothing more important in the world than
the combination of good intentions plus the willingness to back those up with
action. (An only slightly joking quesion: What have you done for the children
of the world recently?) But second, the whole point of Mary Lou’s post is that
there _has_ been a result. The “netbook” market is growing by leaps and
bounds, and more and more children all over the place are getting their hands
on various kinds of laptops, whether made by OLPC or otherwise. This was
always Nicholas’s primary publicly stated goal (whether he had different
private goals I have no idea), and the success on that front more than
justifies the effort.

------
jcl
This is Mary Lou Jepsen, the former CTO of OLPC, apparently weighing in on
Ivan Krstic's criticism of Nicholas Negroponte's criticism of the OLPC's
original choice of software stack.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=719048>

~~~
thingie
And she hardly adds any argument or anything, it's just like "don't touch our
brave hero Negroponte, because some of his achievements, completely irrelevant
to the software stack and its critisism, which is the discussed problem".

(Plus I'm really sick of disgusting pathos of next to the last sentence.)

------
cromulent
Tremendous effort by Negroponte, to be sure.

I am fortunate enough to be able to afford to give my children laptops. For
some reason, it doesn't seem important to do so. I guess I just don't get it.

Perhaps teaching children to read and giving them access to books is more
worthy of effort than giving them laptops. Not as newsworthy or noteworthy
though.

Anyway, enough of my quibbling. If more of us had the drive and will to make
the world a better place that Negroponte has, surely the world would be a
better place.

------
asciilifeform
Is this the same Jepsen who "took the money and ran"? "The money" in this case
being the LCD technology she developed - _funded by our donations._

~~~
jcl
The patents have stayed with OLPC.

 _"Pixel Qi -- my new company -- is now licensing my inventions from OLPC.
This isn't an OLPC employee benefit, it's a deal I created with OLPC and Pixel
Qi, and the benefit will go to OLPC and to the children of the world, lowering
the price of the laptops, and thus allowing more kids to get laptops."_

<http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080107182525297>

~~~
asciilifeform
> The patents have stayed with OLPC.

This tells us nothing about how they will be licensed. They will be available
for free use by the well-connected, but certainly not to you or me.

~~~
bitwize
Since you and I don't build LCD panels in our spare time, I suppose that may
be just as well.

