Nicholas Negroponte said, in the context of the United States, that all that was carried on wireguides would shift to wireless (e.g., telephony) and all that was carried by wireless (e.g., television) would shift to wireguides. Wireless was better at connecting people who were inherently mobile; while wireguides made better sense for hauling large amounts of data needed to give people high-quality entertainment experiences. George Gilder called this the Negroponte Switch.
The US market, of course, was heavily wired to start with: twisted-pair copper from the phone company and co-ax from the cable company coming to most homes and offices. In this context, the Negroponte Switch made eminent sense. The refarming, for mobile uses, of 700 MHz frequencies that were inefficiently used for television, earlier in…
Computer enthusiasts in the developed world will soon be able to get their hands on the so-called “$100 laptop”.
The organisation behind the project has launched the “give one, get one” scheme that will allow US residents to purchase two laptops for $399 (£198).
One laptop will be sent to the buyer whilst a child in the developing world will receive the second machine.
The G1G1 scheme, as it is known, will offer the laptops for just two weeks, starting on the 12 November.
The offer to the general public comes after the project’s founder admitted that concrete orders from the governments of developing nations had not always followed verbal agreements.
Nicholas Negroponte told the New York Times: “I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand…
Intel and $100 laptop join forces
Nicholas Negroponte, founder of One Laptop per Child, said: “Intel joins the OLPC board as a world leader in technology,
helping reach the world’s children. Collaboration with Intel means that the maximum number of laptops will reach children.”
Intel inside
The new agreement means that Intel will sit alongside the 11 companies, including Google and Red Hat, which are partners in
the OLPC scheme.
It will also join rival chip-maker AMD, which supplies the processor at the heart of the $100 laptop.
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More on the Negroponte laptop. It has built-in wireless and a completely different interface.
BBC NEWS | Technology | $100 laptop project launches 2007
The so-called XO machine is being pioneered by Nicholas Negroponte, who launched the project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab in 2004.
Test machines are expected to reach children in February as the project builds towards a more formal launch.
Wireless networking
Mr Negroponte told the Associated Press news agency that three more African countries might sign on in the next two weeks.
The laptop is powered by a 366-megahertz processor from Advanced Micro Devices and has built-in wireless networking.
It has no hard disk drive and instead uses 512 MB of flash memory, and has two USB ports to which more storage could be attached.
…
Tags: 366-megahertz processor, Advanced Micro Devices, Associated Press, BBC, built-in wireless, built-in wireless networking, disk drive, flash memory, Manitoba, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology\'s Media Lab, Nicholas Negroponte, USD, Wireless networking.
Microsoft Would Put Poor Online by Cellphone
By JOHN MARKOFF
Published: January 30, 2006
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan. 29 — It sounds like a project that just about any technology-minded executive could get behind: distributing durable, cheap laptop computers in the developing world to help education. But in the year since Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Laboratory, unveiled his prototype for a $100 laptop, he has found himself wrestling with Microsoft and the politics of software.
Mr. Negroponte has made significant progress, but he has also catalyzed the debate over the role of computing in poor nations — and ruffled a few feathers. He failed to reach an agreement with Microsoft on including its Windows software in the laptop, leading Microsoft executives to start…
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