I am surprised that these negative comments are cropping up on El Reg. Obviously on Slashdot you expect the coments from testosterone crazed teenagers in B*mf**k, Alabama who believe the third world consists entirely of starving people in mud huts, but one expects better here.
Clearly, the countries this is aimed at are, by and large, not the ones where people are sitting round starving. Frankly, anyone here who cannot see the potential benefit of this device over spending the money on some textbooks is in the wrong profession, and should bugger off to count some beans, or something.
It will, however, need careful management to make sure that the potential benefits ARE realised. Being a cynic, I fear the worst, but that doesn't mean that people should concentrate all their efforts on the poorest people in the world. Whilst this is in theory a good idea, the reality is that there are plenty of people in the west who will engage with the OLPC project in a way that they wouldn't with other schemes.
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Maslow's hiearchy of nerds
I am surprised that these negative comments are cropping up on El Reg. Obviously on Slashdot you expect the coments from testosterone crazed teenagers in B*mf**k, Alabama who believe the third world consists entirely of starving people in mud huts, but one expects better here.
Clearly, the countries this is aimed at are, by and large, not the ones where people are sitting round starving. Frankly, anyone here who cannot see the potential benefit of this device over spending the money on some textbooks is in the wrong profession, and should bugger off to count some beans, or something.
It will, however, need careful management to make sure that the potential benefits ARE realised. Being a cynic, I fear the worst, but that doesn't mean that people should concentrate all their efforts on the poorest people in the world. Whilst this is in theory a good idea, the reality is that there are plenty of people in the west who will engage with the OLPC project in a way that they wouldn't with other schemes.