Sky’s Blog @ The Dalai Lama Foundation — Spreading the word in a networked world

Techmeme tracks news all over the web, and a link on Techmeme today to a BBC article brought to my attention yet another inexpensive laptop computer for kids. Intel has a $200+ laptop (the “$100 laptop” is now close to $175) that could also be in the running.

And let’s not ignore other efforts to create inexpensive computers, like Simputer and the recent announcement that India seeks to create a $10 laptop computer. (That’s, of course, going to be extremely difficult, but it does show that $100 may still be too high a price to achieve “everywhere” penetration.)

On CBS News, Lesley Stahl interviewed Nick Negroponte about the computer. There’s video there to be viewed. This is the CBS-OLPC institutional view, of course, but the discussion about OLPC in the blogosphere has gotten so negative lately that some positivity is welcome!

• OLPC main site
• “OLPC News“
• The CBS News report on OLPC

The Intel Classmate

• Google video of the first prototype of the Intel Eduwise computer (later the Classmate) at trade show (May 2006)
• C|Net article on Intel’s Classmate
• Brazil to test…Classmate
• A technical comparison of the OLPC “XO” and the Intel Classmate
• Wikipedia entry on the Intel Classmate

The Simputer (Simple Computer)

• Wikipedia entry on the Simputer
• Simputer web site

-posted using Ecto

Due to Apple’s release yesterday of information about how they’re going green, I checked a follow-up article on Greenpeace.org this morning. They applaud Apple’s initiative, raising its score to 5 out of 10 and urging them onward!

And here’s their continuing call to action - Green my Apple, to the Core.

For a broader overview of greenness in computers, here’s Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.

Steve Jobs and Apple, Inc. published today a statement entitled A Greener Apple describing what they’re doing to reduce toxic substances in their products, and to ensure that the substances used can and will be recycled or reclaimed. Here’s one statement - “Apple recycled 13 million pounds of e-waste in 2006, which is equal to 9.5% of the weight of all products Apple sold seven years earlier. We expect this percentage to grow to 13% in 2007, and to 20% in 2008. By 2010, we forecast recycling 19 million pounds of e-waste per year — nearly 30% of the product weight we sold seven years earlier.” Steve points out that HP and Dell currently recycle about 10%, which is about the same as Apple’s current percentage and he stated that he expects Apple to outstrip these other companies very soon.

This is good news and a good move toward environmental transparency. It would be hypocritical of us to push the Internet, and computers as substitutes for polluting technologies (especially air travel) and then be contributing repeatedly to the poisoning of the earth!