Arriving Somewhere

There have been stories out for a while now about different companies who are designing a cheap laptop to be used in developing countries. While I don’t think that providing computers to the hungry will help them eat, it will go a long way in educating people - and education is the key to solving many problems in developing nations.

The MIT Media Laboratory is one group pursuing this goal. An article in Computer World about their project is an interesting read.
MIT to launch $100 laptop prototype in November
Here’s a snippet:

The laptop can be powered either with an AC adaptor or via a wind-up crank, which is stored in the housing of the laptop, where the hinge is located. The laptops will have a 10 to 1 crank rate, so that a child will crank the handle for one minute to get 10 minutes of power and use. When closed, the hinge forms a handle, and the AC cord can function as a carrying strap, according to Negroponte. The laptops will be ruggedized and probably made of rubber, he said. They will have four USB (Universal Serial Bus) ports, be Wi-Fi- and cell phone-enabled and come with 1GB of memory.

The operating system will be Linux, of course. I wonder what flavor.