OLPC: $ 200 and cow draft

On Monday, the $ 100 laptop project reached an undoubtedly significant milestone in its development: now OLPC pre-orders are accepted at a minimum price of $ 200 (when ordering a batch of 10,000 pieces). This price was established after it has been raised several times over the past months: from $ 150 in February to $ 176 in April and $ 188 just two weeks ago. OLPC representative refused to give comments to Reuters , however, in general, it didn’t surprise anyone. The price of $ 100 dollars from the very beginning was considered unrealistic, even taking into account the quantity of orders already received in the amount of 2.5 million pieces, voiced by the head of the project Nicholas Negroponte. Where this number comes from, no one has yet understood, since only three countries have confirmed their interest in the OLPC: Peru, Uruguay and Mongolia, the latter being ready to master only 20,000 computers.

Meanwhile, enthusiasts of the OLPC developer community are not discouraged and continue to offer non-standard ideas for solving problems that may arise among users in the most remote corners of the world. Arjun Sarwal from India proposed a way to produce electricity in those parts of the country that are not generously illuminated by sunlight, do not have turbulent water flows and the wind blows there only if the trees are loosened. Since promising computers consume only 2 watts of electricity, a medium-sized village school can be powered from ox-pull when a couple of cows walk in a circle, thereby spinning up the generator.

The start date of the actual supply of computers to customers is still unclear. The start of production of laptops at a factory in China was once again postponed, and the release date for software version 1.0 for them will not be released until December 7, so by the end of the year children in Montevideo or Ulan Bator hardly have a chance to hold these fruits in their hands Western philanthropists.