Bright ideas

Amid much fanfare, the MIT Media Lab officially announced their $100, garishly lime-green, laptop design, intended for distribution to children in poor countries (I imagine it would be popular in rich countries too - sounds like companies hate the idea of cutting into their profit margins though), at a UN conference. Extracts from the BBC story:

The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.
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The laptops will be encased in rubber to make them durable and their AC adaptors will act as carrying straps.
They have a 500MHz processor, with flash memory instead of a hard drive which has more delicate moving parts, and four USB ports. They link up and share a net connection through "mesh networking".
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One computer with a wi-fi or 3G net modem, for example, would share the connection with others in a classroom.
[MIT person] explained that the display did not have a backlight or colour filters that more pricey LCD laptop displays used, so saved power. Instead, bright LEDs are used which reduced power consumption by a factor of 10.
The screens are dual-mode displays so that the laptop can still be used in varying light conditions.
Although children will be able to interact with each other through the machines, education was still the priority for the laptops.
But by using mesh networking, the vision is for children to interact while doing homework, and even share homework tips on a local community scale.
Collaboration will also be encouraged by using open-source software, which the children could develop themselves and use in local communities

For those of us with plans to benefit society in this country, the Service Employees International Union is sponsoring a "best idea since sliced bread" competition for really good economic ideas. The first prize is $100,000, and the deadline is December 5th.