OLPC Suxors

There was a mild pissing contest with a commentator on Saigon Nezumi (a techy, HCMC-world view blog) about the OLPC (apparently calling some professor a pointy headed, ivory tower dwelling nitwit is offensive to a person *other* than said nitwit and his immediate family).

Anyhow, courtesy of Fake Steve Jobs, I read this piece by a UofC law prof - Eric Posner, who was sired by Richard Posner, yeah, that one - poo-poo'ing the OLPC project. And by UofC I mean Chicago, not California.. you know, the good school with the dour, pointy headed folks.

A nice money quote (pun intended):

The profit incentive will encourage entrepreneurs to develop yet cheaper and better laptops.

The latest and greatest tech hit of late 2007 is the new Asus Eee laptop - that thing is like $250-400 USD, depending on the configuration. And it's useable enough that I'm considering picking one up to use as a business PDA - unfortunately I'm concerned that I am not as well versed in computers as I need to be to handle the Eee (it runs an "easy" Linux package).

I believe in community work and non-profits, and am fortunate enough to be able to afford to walk the talk, but it generally makes less sense when non-profits attempt to fill space already occupied by market participants.. maybe that's why I'm not too keen on KOTO.