Top 10 Concerns

From OLPC

M.I.T. 'ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD' PROJECT
  TOP 10 CONCERNS FROM "THE KIDS"

I'm sorry, these are clearly not the concerns of The Kids. Please somebody, put a link to the laptop research in the US that is the basis for this project.Ed Cherlin 20061001 14:58 GMT-07:00

come on, man, you know the recipients of these systems are the source of all cool software into the far, far future. Millions of us learn about open source software all at once! We wish to give you some feedback, maybe make 'em work better so we could contribute more code, help you out a little, help us out a little, help everything out a lot.

1. FORM FACTOR - forget "Laptop" ... sorry, this needs to be always-with-you underwater-wearable. Check with Nokia.

Wearable? Check with Thad Starner of Georgia Tech. Glasses-mounted heads-up display, one-hand keyboard on a wrist strap, computer on belt or in pocket. Unfortunately a good heads-up display is still many hundreds of dollars. Waterproof is good, but why underwater? Ed Cherlin 20061001 15:01 GMT-07:00

2. LANGUAGE - an ultracompatible, alien-scalable design does not assume a programmer is familiar with the English alphabet. Programmer? Yes! Make programming the device as accessible as using it. Since you are going to have light and sound sensors (see below), why not use them before relying on some keyboard layout and written language. We need a computer that can learn any visual or auditory language, even sign language, and encourages experimentation and learning about every single part of itself, even interrupting and customizing the machine code boot process, easily spawning evolving software forks from any point. Dolphins might work it better than you.

APL is the only programming language I know that isn't English-centric, since it uses mainly math symbols. It has been used in elementary schools, so we can discuss it. Ed Cherlin

3. CAMERA - communication is the basic function of this device, right? So don't start it off blind! Connecting people and breaking-down barriers should start with a picture window so people can identify each other and conduct all manner of business at a distance. You want to help local economic situations, right? All it takes is helping people find ways to help their business partners, matching needs with resources and capabilities. Even low-information- rate cameras allow sharing pictures of problems and collaborative solutions.

Yes, a webcam is essential. It could prevent whole wars if children were able to get pictures from the next conflict zone out to CNN. Ed Cherlin

4. MICROPHONES / SPEAKERS - maximize hearing and music-making capabilities to encourage learning about, creating and sharing music! Poor quality sensors limit evolving applications such as focus-finding (e.g. for remote spectrum- zoom) and ultra/sub-sonic whisper wireless.

Forget the advanced tech. Save cultures and languages. Let the bands appear. Ed Cherlin

5. CONNECTIVITY - a multi-purpose, programmable radio is more useful as technology evolves. A fail-safe network requires no radio; however, as it is created simply by systems moving around and interacting with each other (perhaps pointing one's camera/mic at another's screen/speaker to transmit using light and sound information). Friend-to- friend message passing pushes the Internet to become an upward-scalable superset of itself, the Cosmic Internet.

Radio more useful than computing? I don't even know what you are talking about. Ed Cherlin

6. KNOWLEDGE SHARING - who is expecting us "children" to pay for a domain name or a webhost for an equal place on the Internet? Each system must act as its own service provider and webserver with naming deconflicted the same way individuals know the difference between two of their friends with the same name. A fully-distributed picture-wiki website where viewers prioritize resource requests from valued contributors, is simple, beautiful and robust.

Yes, this is worth taking up with W3C and IETF. We should ask Vint Cerf. Ed Cherlin

7. BACKWARDS SCALEABLE - software should function on the maximum range of existing hardware with only smoothly scaled-back results. A clear description of desired functionality (i.e. what we want it to do) results in easily traversed layers of abstraction and optimizing implementations for various processors.

Bafflegab. Anyway, we already have Free Software. Ed Cherlin

8. MODULAR PLATFORM - encourages local, instant reuse of parts. Local suppliers of build-your-own systems and components enable unlimited local environment customization. The small size of parts and two-way-shipping containers enables pedal-power, packaging-waste-free distribution.

Modularity costs more. The appropriate support ecosystem is better designed by markets than by theorists. Ed Cherlin

9. NOISE TOLERANT - systems constantly filter noise to find signal rather than enforce silence and perfect transmission. Imagine a program that makes requests of self-organizing memory-bots and prioritizes them based on their recent performance rather than a rigid plan for addressing a set amount of storage.

Again, I have no idea what this is about, and I suspect that you don't either. If you can point to an example, we can discuss it. Ed Cherlin

10. PUBLIC INFORMATION - there are no sharing restrictions on information about components, including sourcing of all materials, energy, disposition of byproducts, design and engineering tools, etc. to empower requestors of these priceless gifts to choose suppliers and parts that they are proud to support, using their own selection criteria such as local, bulk, organic, re-mixable, off-grid, sustainable, etc.

That assumes modularity, which is too expensive. Ed Cherlin

All assumptions and design decisions over the course of the evolution of computers should be fair game here, especially emphasizing the integration of audio and video communication and mobility.

A camera can be extremely useful for giving a mobile device situational awareness, such as location (visual clues and offsets from known landmarks) and sequencing (time-lapse day/night cycles, sun/moon/star movements).

Among self-powering solutions, a crank/springwheel/capacitor can replace environmentally-costly batteries, and sunlight / candlelight displays can avoid toxic and limited-durability lamps.

Don't brainwash us children into your world, help us build one that sets us free and lets us show the way. No company should be calculating $100 x one billion and salivating, their investors and executives dreaming of ways to expand their lifestyles of excess and reinforce consumerism by "helping" the "poor" in far away places. How did things get so messed-up, HMM? We need evolving, known-source hardware and software designs and a little inspiration for those that find themselves with the means to deliver, to go ahead and find enough reason to make it happen without a price tag.

Every society tries to brainwash its children. Get real. Access to unparalleled information is the opposite of brainwashing. As Sherri Tepper put it, does having a map force you to go a particular way?

And we should have manufacturers and other suppliers salivating. The only way to end poverty is to make it profitable to do so. Only taxes on the income of the no longer poor can pay for the program long-term. Charity hasn't a chance.

If you want to design an alternative computer for the children of the world, and can get it funded, more power to you. But for now, we have to work with the design we have, and with what we can plug into it. Ed Cherlin

PEACE :-) N888

You got that right. War (including leftover land mines and cluster bombs) is still one of the leading causes of poverty worldwide. Ed Cherlin