The $100 laptop closer to reality

[mailinglist at endosquid.com (Brendan)]

On Thursday 29 September 2005 01:15 pm, Rich Braun wrote:
> In sum, I think the whole $100 laptop concept is going nowhere fast:
>
> * It's being proposed by an academic who may not have fully evaluated
>   the business support costs, or even the true cost-of-goods for these.
> * Computer-based instruction has long been a bankrupt idea, more likely
>   to dumb-down the student body than provide clear understanding.
> * Who will benefit from owning an obsolete piece of junk?  (Put yourself
>   into the mind of a 12-year-old:  would you think it's "cool" to have
>   one of these things, vs. a gamers'-special custom PC with all the
>   bells & whistles?  Even the poor kids want $100 sneakers... *not*
>   $100 laptops!)
>
> The environmentalist in me shudders at the notion of finding an appropriate
> waste-disposal site for the billions of these things that could be funded
> with, say, the sums wasted on one single foolish presidential directive (or
> failure to plan ahead) these days.

Great post. I couldn't have said it any more succinctly (obviously).