Political Challenges stalk $100 Laptop

A lack of "big thinking" by politicians has stifled a scheme to distribute laptops to children in the developing world, says Walter Bender of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project.

Bender has said that politicians are unwilling to commit because "change equals risk". But, he said, there needed to be a "dramatic change" because education in many countries was "failing" children.

Speaking to BBC News, Professor Bender said: "We think that change has to be dramatic."

"You've got to be big, you've got to be bold. And what has happened is that there has been an effort to say 'don't take any risks - just do something small, something incremental'."

"It feels safe but by definition what you are ensuring is that nothing happens."

More Chuck Norris

Chuck Norris beat the Sun in a staring contest.

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Chuck Norris Endorsement

Dems: Cost of War higher than reported

The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report by Democrats in the US Congress.

They say "hidden costs" have pushed the total to about $1.5 trillion - nearly twice the requested $804bn.

Higher oil prices, treating wounded veterans, and the cost to the economy of pulling reservists away from their jobs have been taken into account.

The White House has called the report politically motivated.

Just ordered my XO

I have just completed my purchase of an XO laptop from the OLPC project as part of the Give One Get One program. For $403 (including shipping) I have ordered a laptop for a child in the developing world and a laptop for the kid in my life... ok, me. Here's a review.

Europeans choosing Internet over TV

Almost six out of 10 West Europeans now regularly access the Internet and, for the first time, young people are more likely to go online for most days of the week than turn on the television, according to a new survey.

Still, the web is less and less the turf of the young: the past year saw a 12 percent jump in so-called 'silver surfers' — Europeans 55-and-older — using the Internet and an 8 percent rise in Internet use by women, said the survey by the European Interactive Advertising Association, a trade group of sellers of interactive media, released this week.

It said 16-to-24-year olds now prefer going online to watching the tube: 82 percent use the Internet between 5 and 7 days each week "while only 77 percent watch TV as regularly," a drop of 5 percent from 2006, the survey found.

It said 42 percent of users communicate via social networking sites at least once a month.

It's snowing here.

Wait, it might be a light dizzle.

C$1.10/US$1, Oil close to $100/barrel

Crude oil rose above $98 a barrel in New York for the first time on speculation U.S. stockpiles fell for a third week and as the dollar fell to a record low.

The US$ declined to its weakest ever result versus the Canadian dollar since the end of a fixed exchange rate in 1950.

A New Era Begins: $100 Laptop begin production.

Mass production of the OLPC $100 laptop has begun, five years after the concept was first proposed.

Computer manufacturer Quanta has started building the low-cost laptops at a factory in Changshu, China and officials from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) group said that children in developing countries would begin receiving machines this month.

Last month, OLPC received its first official order for 100,000 machines from the government of Uruguay.

"Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC.

The green and white XO machines pack a number of innovations which make them suitable for use in remote and environmentally hostile areas.

The machine has no moving parts and can be easily maintained. It has a sunlight-readable display that allows children to use it outside and, importantly for areas with little access to electricity, it is ultra low power and can be charged by a variety of devices including solar panels.

Although OLPC eventually plan to sell the machines for $100 or less, the current price is $188. The XO is expected to have far reaching impacts on the computer industry.

Yahoo! sends user to Chinese Jail.

Two top Yahoo Inc. officials on Tuesday defended their company's role in the jailing of a Chinese journalist but ran into withering criticism from lawmakers who accused them of complicity with an oppressive communist regime.

"While technologically and financially you are giants, morally you are pygmies," House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, D-Calif., said angrily after hearing from the two Yahoo executives.

He angrily urged Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang and General Counsel Michael Callahan to apologize to journalist Shi Tao's mother, who was sitting directly behind them.

Shi Tao was sent to jail for 10 years for engaging in pro-democracy efforts deemed subversive after Yahoo turned over information about his online activities requested by Chinese authorities.

Dog loses his show

Well this wasn't the way I expected this to end (but I did expect an end).

Bounty Hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman has had his show pulled from US TV schedules after he used a racist term repeatedly in a phone call.

The A&E network said Dog the Bounty Hunter would be off-air "for the foreseeable future", but had not been scrapped.

Chapman's son taped a private phone conversation in which the reality star used a racial slur about his son's girlfriend repeatedly, then sold it to a tabloid for "a lot of money," Chapman's lawyer said.

James Cameron couldn't do it better.

Now this is an excellent website for both excellent information presentation and marketing messaging -- it's the Governor of California Wildfire Site. The image gallery is fantastic and doesn't Schwarzenegger look the engaged and active leader?