Elijah wrote,
I'm not certain that you can claim that they're technologically inferior to Western technology, as they *are* Western technology. ;) I do think I know what you meant, in the other sense of those words, too, and still don't find the argument compelling.
If we can build a perfectly usable 500Mhz laptop for a hundred bucks that runs the *state of the art* in available software - that is to say, the very same software (or its close kin, modified for the hardware of the laptop) that is on my desktop here in Indiana - what's the use of having a $3k "Western" desktop machine?
I agree. What was interesting was the original post implied that somehow these laptops are inferior because they lack a hard drive. While the capacity of the drives is somewhat limited, flash drives are the next generation storage solution. Pretty cutting edge. At least Samsung thinks so http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1966644,00.asp?kc=ETRSS02129TX1K0... We might also revise our notion of what "state of the art" software means. The developers for the $100 laptop are working to create a very user-friendly software environment specifically tailored for the classroom. When I read Tom Hoffman and Chris Blizzard's discussion of the chat application and the way in which the software will allow students to create and share content, I see a machine that may be much superior for getting students discussing and collaborating than what comes stock from Dell or any of the other computer vendors (for many thousand more): http://www.eschoolnews.com/eti/2006/05/001414.php http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/weblog/?p=200 Charlie Lowe