$100 Laptop Update
First off, I found out the $100 laptop allows you to view source in any program you’re in. The whole thing is programmed in Python and you can even edit the code. Considering this is how I learned all the HTML I know, I think it’s brilliant. In related news, looks like Intel has dropped out of the program after OLPC asked them to “stop supporting other efforts in emerging markets.” The New York Times reports things are not quite as cut and dry as Intel spokespeople would lead you to believe: “A frail partnership between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child educational computing group was undone last month in part by an Intel saleswoman: She tried to persuade a Peruvian official to drop the country’s commitment to buy a quarter-million of the organization’s laptops in favor of Intel PCs.”
Still not sure how this thing will play out, but I say let them all keep competing and driving the prices down. The Times article also reports that the “‘Give One, Get One’ charitable promotion had generated $35 million and sold a total of 167,000 computers, half of them to be distributed in the developing world.” That’s not too shabby (even though just over 83,000 will actually get into children’s hands).