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NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD PROGRAM EXPANDS BUT MACHINES STILL SLOW PIECES OF JUNK
ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD PROGRAM EXPANDS BUT MACHINES STILL SLOW PIECES OF JUNK
May 9 2011
Dodoma, Tanzania – A generation ago there were only a handful of computers in the world. They were massive devices, exorbitantly expensive, and could only be used by a handful of specially trained engineers. Even by the 1980’s when home computers 
started to become more common, costs and usability were still out of reach for the majority of people. Now the situation has totally changed with computers not only accessible but almost necessary. With costs down to more than reasonable levels and phones more powerful than any of those massive machines of the past, the world of computers has dramatically changed.
There is no better evidence of than in the ‘$100 laptop’ program that has sought to provide machines to poor people all across the world. Thousands of students in Asia, the Americas, and Africa are now in possession of machines that the wealthiest people 50 years ago could never have dreamed of owning. By providing access to cheap computing the hope is to bring cheap education to the masses and allow poor nations to keep pace with wealthy nations in an increasingly interconnected world. The program has met with a great deal of criticism however and much of that is coming from the people using the laptops who are starting to realize that the machines they are being given are just slow, underpowered pieces of crap.
“We understand and appreciate the intent here and I can speak from experience that the change in the students, both their level of knowledge and their energy for learning has increased dramatically since the introduction of these machines. However, they are
still lacking,” said Adimu Pinda, a teacher in Dodoma. “We also understand that for the low amount of money there are going to be limits to what can be done from a computing standpoint but we are still struggling with how slow they are. I’ve used better machines and I can tell you that these things are just pieces of junk and we need better machines to keep things going.”
Many have noted that as web applications become more and more complex, underpowered machines simply won’t be able to process new data streams.
“Take the case of Internet Explorer 6. People have for years been trying to force an end to that browser which is still in widespread use but because it is so out of date it is holding back the progress of the web. With streaming video, particularly HD video, and the incoming HTML 5 the web is about to become far more complex and underpowered machines are going to struggle to keep up,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “That could in essence help to further the gap. By relying on antiquated technology the people won’t understand that there is a bigger world out there. They will become used to the inferiority and will live like that. Essentially, exactly what has happened throughout the third world; they accept poverty as the standard.”
Critics have also noted that major websites, including those with the ever popular lists and videos of sports accidents are requiring faster and faster computing.
“Look, life isn’t just about work. The basics will be available but the diversity of the web will not be which puts people in these countries at a significant disadvantage. The web just isn’t the web without Facebook after all,” continued Kevins. “Poor children in countries like Tanzania will be unable to download things like ‘The Office’ in HD, or unable to play popular flash games. True they will have access to free books and textbooks but that’s such a small part of the web that they will inevitably fall very far behind.”
Advocates are hoping for at minimum triple core via hyper threading with 3 gigs of RAM.
Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent
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