Gawker: valleywag, pixel qi

Mary Lou Jepsen on the high seas of Richardson Bay

Owen Thomas — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 13:00:00 EDT

As relieved as we were to hear that Mary Lou Jepsen, the founder of cheap-laptop display startup Pixel Qi, had recovered from an eye infection acquired in Peru, we were a bit heartbroken to hear that she'd stopped wearing the eye patch she'd sported during a recent video interview. All the more so when we heard where she lived: On a floating house moored at Issaquah Dock, one of the houseboat colonies of Sausalito, across the Golden Gate from San Francisco. Arrr, mateys! Mary Lou has boarded our hearts and taken our imagination captive.

Jepsen rocks for so many reasons: She believes that capitalism is a more effective way to do good than an ego-fluffing nonprofit. She's working on actual hardware, solving real-world problems that matter to billions of people, not catering to the whims of a San Francisco/Brooklyn in crowd with a Web 2.0 startup. And she's refreshingly forthright. We never were much for Talk Like a Pirate Day, but come September, we now plan to dress up as Mary Lou Jepsen.

Mary Lou Jepsen's eye patch proves more popular than many of Negroponte's ideas

Paul Boutin — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:40:00 EDT

Arrrrrrrrr! Readers who watched computer-display innovator Mary Lou Jepsen yesterday had only one question: WTF with the eye patch. I guessed at Jepsen's email address and asked her. It turns out we'll be seeing much more of Jepsen, but not the patch. The engineer, trained at MIT's Media Lab, left Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child project to start her own for-profit venture, Pixel Qi, making affordable screens for all kinds of cheap, portable computers. She recently moved from Massachusetts to San Francisco. Jepsen's eye patch story:

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

One Laptop Per Child project proves to be about ego, not education

Owen Thomas — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:40:00 EDT

MIT Media Lab director Nicholas Negroponte had a vision: Millions of third-world children lacked laptops and therefore the means to learn of his greatness. He founded the One Laptop Per Child Project with a singular vision: He, Nicholas Negroponte, would bring laptops to these children, so that they could know that he, Nicholas Negroponte, brought laptops to them. An effort founded on egotism has foundered on egotism. Like attracts like; Negroponte brought other narcissists into the fold, only to see them leave to find more room for their self-loving to expand. Mary Lou Jepsen, OLPC's hardware chief, left in January to start a for-profit company, Pixel Qi; now Walter Bender, OLPC's former head of software who left in April, has started a rival for-the-children effort.

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.

One Laptop Per Child techie wants to make money on cheap PCs

Tim Faulkner — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 15:35:40 EST

Mary Lou Jespen, founding CTO of the One Laptop Per Child project, recently walked off her job at Nicholas Negroponte's charity case. And now she wants to build a $75 version of the laptop that OLPC has struggled to build for $200. But Jespen may be crazy like a fox. She's actually building a business — the insanity! — called Pixel Qi to further her goals.

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.