Teaching children to use Windows is like teaching them to smoke tobacco—in a world where only one company sells tobacco. Like any addictive drug, it inculcates a harmful dependency. No wonder Microsoft offers the first dose to children at a low price. Microsoft aims to teach poor children this dependency so they can smoke Windows for their whole lives. I don’t think governments or schools should support that aim.

(Photo by cheetah100)

From: Mary Lou Jepsen
To: Paul Boutin
Subject: Re: A question from our readers
Date: July 29, 2008 4:27:25 PM PDT

Paul,

I visited remote Peru last spring. It's poor there, scant electricity, little wifi, and not really clean water in the most remote places. The latter led to a painful eye condition, that had me literally half-blind for several months. I'm happy to report that I'm on the mend, and the patch is off and my vision has much improved.

What I discovered: a patch is a kid magnet. I was very popular with the under-10 crowd when I sported it.

best,
- Mary Lou

Bender and Negroponte are quarreling over open-source software, a subject which one doubts the laptopless of the third world care about, if they have even heard of it. Negroponte wants OLPC's XO laptops to run Windows; Bender wants to adapt its open-source Sugar software to multiple platforms through his new nonprofit, Sugar Labs. Any platform, that is, except an XO laptop running Windows, since it appears that Negroponte's request that Bender adapt Sugar for Windows is what precipitated the dispute.

The OLPC Foundation is looking for a new CEO, Negroponte says. For that role, we nominate Helen Lovejoy of The Simpsons, the one who famously uttered "Won't somebody please think of the children?" At this point, a cartoon character could do no worse.

Scott, Scott, Scott: Negroponte has never been in the business of doing anything. His core competency is talking. The sooner you learn this, the happier you'll be at One Laptop Per Child. Negroponte's goals with One Laptop Per Child are admirable and visionary. As with many visionaries, his contact with reality is infrequent and tenuous. The best way to get OLPC's hardware and software built: Send Negroponte on another worldwide goodwill tour, keeping him as far from the labs as possible.

Pixel Qi will produce the cheap, low-energy, sunlight-readable display used in Negroponte's charity computer for use in laptops, portable devices, and mobile phones. The startup will also use its design expertise to create other low-power computer components. Jespen is the chief inventor of the screens, the most unique component used in Negroponte's OLPC. With the industry increasing focus on low-cost, energy-efficient components, Jespen may have the making of a successful business. However, the entrepreneur and engineer hasn't completely woken from the philanthropic dreams of OLPC. Pixel Qi will continue to provide Negroponte's nonprofit with screens at cost while pursuing its own goal of producing an even cheaper, for-profit laptop. At the same time, it may well make OLPC irrelevant. Greed is good — even when it comes to helping third-world children.

I HEREBY REQUEST YOUR HELP AND ASSISTANCE TO HELP SEND ME TRANSFER THIS US$20,000,000.00(TWENTY MILLION, UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO OUR COUNTRY SO THAT WE WORK TOGETHER AND INVEST THE MONEY IN A LUCRATIVE BUSINESS IN OUR COUNTRY.

I NEED YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THIS MONEY INTO OUR COUNTRY SO THAT WE BEGIN THE BUSINESS IN EARNEST. MY FAMILY LAWYER; JUSTICE MUSTAPHA AKANBI WILL ALSO ASSIST US TO FACILATE THE TRANSFER OF THIS US$20,000,000.00 INTO OUR BANK ACCOUNT.

I WILL LIKE YOU TO KEEP THIS INVESTMENT PROJECT CONFIDENTIAL UNTIL WE START IT IN EARNEST. I WILL GIVE YOU A 20% GRATIFICATION AS SOON AS THIS US$20,000,000.00 IS TRANSFERED INTO OUR BANK ACCOUNT. I WILL ALSO REFUND YOU ALL THE MONEY YOU WILL SPEND IN THE COURSE OF TRANSFERING THIS US$20,000,000.00 INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL, LET ME HEAR FROM YOU SO THAT WE KNOW THE NEXT LINE OF ACTION AS REGARDS THIS INVESTMENT PROJECT. PLEASE I LOOK FORWARD TO HEAR FROM YOU ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL.REMEMBER TO GIVE ME YOUR PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS IN YOUR REPLY FOR EASY COMMUNICATIONS.CONTACT ME BY EMAIL ON YOUR RECEIPT OF THIS MAIL: SO THAT WE DISCUSS MORE ABOUT OUR INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIP IN OUR COUNTRY.

AS I WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU.
REMAIN BLESSED, BEST REGARDS DR, TOM BELLO

For-profit companies threatened by the projected $100 price tag set off at a sprint to develop their own dirt-cheap machines, plunging Mr. Negroponte into unexpected competition against Intel and Microsoft.

Intel, which normally doesn't sell computers, introduced a small laptop for developing countries called the Classmate, which currently goes for between $230 and $300. It hopes to prevent AMD, whose chips are in Mr. Negroponte's competing computer, from becoming a standard in the developing world.

Some potential buyers are having second thoughts. Officials in Libya, who had planned to buy up to 1.2 million of the laptops, became concerned that the machines lacked Windows, and that service, teacher training and future upgrades might [therefore] become a problem.

It now sells for $188, plus shipping. The higher price has made the laptop vulnerable to competition. Taiwanese, Indian and Israeli sellers of inexpensive Windows laptop see the developing world's more than one billion potential young customers as a big opportunity.

At a private meeting with a group from Rwanda, Negroponte announced that 20,000 laptops, courtesy of the "Give One. Get One." program, would soon be distributed. Carine Umutesi, who works for Rwanda's Information Technology Authority, questioned who would fix them if they break.

Mr. Negroponte said some initial tech support would be provided by Brightstar Corp., a Miami-based wireless equipment distributor. Just who would provide support a few years from now, he said, was "a frightening question." The students, he said, will need "to do as much maintenance as possible."

"Microsoft has always been working on Windows for the XO," OLPC's specially-designed laptop, Negroponte added. We don't begrudge the good professor for abandoning his open-source doctrine and revising history — his charity has learned to run itself more like a business in order to survive. Microsoft just happens to have more money at its disposal than most of the nations Negroponte has failed to sell his diminutive computer to.

What we are going to do is the following, and Jeff Bezos, bless his heart, he's got wonderful creativity for these sorts of jingles. He said you know Nick there's this expression, "Buy one and get two." Yeah, they see that. He said you've got to... have a jingle that says, "Buy two and get one." Bingo: 100 percent margin. So, we will release it in the United States and Europe on a buy two and get one basis where you pay whatever it is $300 for it, and what you're doing is you're buying one or more for a kid in Africa and when you walk around with this it will [be] like a yellow bracelet, it will be an expression, it will actually say that. [Sic.]

[Update: Previously, the post stated that OLPCs would be sold in North America and Europe. It has been corrected to the United States and Canada only thanks to commenter Wayan.]