OLPC give one get one program is open

[eagl]

This might be interesting to any of you with small kids...  OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) has opened their give one get one ordering program.  You buy two of their XO laptops, one gets sent to you and one gets sent to a third world country.  It's a launch event to hopefully get some positive publicity on their program since it's threatened by other similar programs and what amounts to a small army of scoffers who have their own agendas to push.

I mean, you can immunize a young rapist against aids for 200 days for what it costs to buy one OLPC!

Anyhow, each computer costs about $200 so after tax and shipping, you shell out $430ish for a really small green computer aimed at educating kids by using a REAL computer.  They're nearly indestructable and even adult geeks are going to love these things.  

http://www.laptopgiving.org/en/give-one-get-one.php

I'd buy one today except my child is negative 4 months old and by the time he'll be able to use a computer, version 2 of this thing ought to be out.

edit - I almost forgot, for anyone who travels a lot T-Mobile is giving away a free year of t-mobile hotspot access to anyone who buys one of these.  That works out to around $250 worth of access fees, and you can use the free access on any computer, anywhere t-mobile has a hotspot.  That's a pretty damn cool incentive IMHO.

[Flatbar]

The cost now is $399.00, The target price is $100.00. Hopefully they'll be able to get there as the costs go down with numbers. Sounds like a great program, I hope they do well and reach as many kids as possible.

[eagl]

I gave in to my inner geek and bought 1 (well, 2 I suppose).  The program is under such stress that I'm not sure it'll survive, so I'm buying one now in case they go under.

It seems like a nifty idea though.  No way in heck am I going to send money to stop behavior-caused diseases like aids, but this sort of program hits problems like poverty at the very lowest level by teaching kids to collaborate at an early age.  Access to info and the knowledge that there is a much better life available to those with knowledge and some minimum level of self control is the only proven path out of poverty.  This program seems aimed right down that path, so it gets a little bit of my coin.

We'll see whether it's a foolish idea or not.  In the meantime, I should get an expensive little green educational toy for my future-kid.

[VWE]

Wanna earn some extra cash for Christmas? Order it now then sell yours on ebay... I be you'd at least double your money. This offer is only good for 2 weeks...

http://cgi.ebay.com/OLPC-XO-Laptop-Childrens-Machine-XO-1-Notebook_W0QQitemZ270188848069QQihZ017QQcategoryZ177QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

[eagl]

The website says that regarding delivery, they merely hope that orders will be shipped sometime before the holidays...  That might put a crimp in hopeful ebay sellers since I'm not sure ebay likes people selling stuff they don't actually have.

It's a bit like selling stock futures, except it's a laptop and the buyer may throw a fit when the seller keeps telling them maybe it'll show up next week.