You can buy OLPC's $100 XO laptop for $260? (and server stall)

No, it's not cognac. It's IT Blogwatch, in which the One Laptop Per Child "XO" machine gets closer -- perhaps you can buy one? Not to mention how not to install a server...

Dan Nystedt explains:

The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) has whittled down the cost of the green and white computer they hope to deliver to school children in developing countries to about €100 ($130) so far, and hope to reach the target price of $100 in 2008 ... Work on the OLPC project by a host of companies affiliated with the program, from the MIT Media Laboratory that launched the effort, to Advanced Micro Devices, Google, and News Corp. has reduced the cost of a number of key technologies to try to meet the target price.

The BBC's Darren Waters adds:

The backers of the One Laptop Per Child project are looking at the possibility of selling the machine to the public. One idea would be for customers to have to buy two laptops at once - with the second going to the developing world ... The aim is to connect the buyer of the laptop with the child in the developing world who receives the machine.

Huh? "Looking at the possibility"? It didn't say that 8 hours ago. Darren explains on his blog:

So when I interviewed a senior member of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project who told me the group wanted to sell the machine to the general public, "hopefully next year", then I thought I had a real story on my hands. The story was published on Wednesday with the headline "Public can buy $100 laptop".
...
Several hours after it was published I received an e-mail from a PR executive at OLPC who told me that there was definitely no plan to sell the laptop. One frantic call later and it was clear that the "plan" to sell the laptop was no more than a desire, perhaps even just a consideration. I was told that the executive had mis-spoke.
...
I changed the "plan" to a "possibility" and added a quote from the project's founder Nicholas Negroponte who said a commercial approach had been "considered".

Steven Harms isn't impressed:

What makes the OLPC people high and mighty enough to determine who is deemed worthy of paying extra, and who is deemed worthy of getting one for free? Being impoverished is global. My neighbor is mentally impaired, and is not able to function independently. Is my neighbor somehow better off than those in other countries? They don’t have health care, neither does my neighbor. The only reason my neighbor is my neighbor is because the property renter allows them to stay there out of the kindness of his heart.
...
How about in the more impoverished southern united states where people can’t afford school, computers, electricity etc. Why are they not given the same opportunity afforded to others? A child there may never be given any opportunity to move on to anything other than a gas station attendant, if they are lucky.

But Oli Warner sure is:

What a inspired idea! ... you could see what would happen with these laptops when they hit the developing world: they would turn up; be handed out to poor kids; a crime mob would turn up and take them away; ship them off somewhere and suddenly there would be 10,000 of the buggers turning up on eBay.

I know enforced charity isn't everybody's idea of fun but when these things are so cheap to begin with, and I'd happily pay $300 for one, I don't take issue with it, neither should a lot of people.

Nathanaël Lécaudé shows us what the XO's music application looks like:

Here is part 1 of our tutorial series : miniTamTam, enjoy ! [click the link to see the video]

David writes from Western Kenya:

Wow. I'm dumbfounded. Having just picked up my jaw from the floor after watching [Nathanaël's] miniTamTam tutorial, I'm willing to bet that a good few readers will be doing the same after watching this video. What's more, this is only the tip of the iceberg. We now learn that TamTam is a software suite comprising three activities.
...
In the demo, we see the user whizzing around, demonstrating how the XO's keyboard is used to emulate the keys on a piano (including the black keys), kicking out some beats with a variety of drum kits, sampling his own voice and playing it back and then finishing with a quick peek at Synth Lab - a cool looking synth editing activity.

GreatDrok:

It looks like an amazing amount of thought has gone into the design and execution. MS must be scared to death of this thing.

Jason Lefkowitz:

You can grab the complete software stack and test it yourself, if you want. The OLPC team provide OS images that you can use to run the software in any x86 virtualization platform (they recommend qemu, but people have it running in VMWare and Parallels as well). It's worth checking out just to see their new "Sugar" UI -- which is pretty cool IMHO.

Buffer overflow:

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Previously in IT Blogwatch

• Stevenote launches Apple iPhone (and complaining Brits)
• I'll be your Windows Home Server (and I pity tha' foo')
• Gates keynotes CES in Vegas (and duckling flying lesson)
• Cisco gobbles IronPort (and Adam hates spam)
• Pesky PDF problem panics punters (and OpenTom)
• Older posts

And finally... You installed the server WHERE?

Richi Jennings is an independent technology and marketing consultant, specializing in email, blogging, Linux, and computer security. A 20 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. Contact Richi at blogwatch@richi.co.uk.