What’s sadder than people in Burundi earning an average of only $90 a year? It might be Bill Gates‘ criticism of MIT’s efforts to bring affordable, networked computers to the poorest countries of the world in hopes of improving education (and communication and healthcare and more).
The challenge is enormous: the technology needs to be durable, require low-power (and be easily rechargeable), as easy to use as an egg timer, have networking in a land without infrastructure, and be cheap, cheap, cheap. Yet somehow, the MIT folks have figured it out, and the project — known to most of us as the $100 laptop project — seems to be on its way to success.
It’s the sort of thing that you’d figure a philanthropic guy like Bill Gates would be on top of. But alas, he seems not to understand. Gizmodo, ArsTechnica, TeleRead, and others are all reporting the world’s richest man went critical over the MIT project.
What are Big G’s complaints?
- The screen is too small
Hmmm…it’s the same size as on the $1000 Ultra Mobile PCs that Microsoft’s pushing.
- Doesn’t have broadband
Um, well, Bill doesn’t work in telecomm, but you’d think he’d know that there ain’t much broadband in Africa or in poor countries anywhere.
- Doesn’t have a hard drive (it uses flash-based storage)
Apparently he worries that it’ll get filled with MP3s.
- The charger requires cranking
It’s just a generalization, but people usually turn the lights on at night if they can, but there aren’t many in Africa or in poor countries anywhere. Maybe Bill has a line on power fairies?
- Ongoing support, maintenance, and network access costs are far more expensive than the hardware
Right. So, Bill has first hand experience with the hidden costs of Windows, no?
I’m not sure what Bill thinks should be done instead, and I’m kinda thinking that his remarks will be recorded in history as being about as stunningly stupid as the old “who needs more than 640K” line. Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson was as dumbfounded as the rest of us:
It’s hard to see how a philanthropist could not love a device designed to put basic computing power in the hands of every child on earth, but Gates reached deep down inside and found a way
Perhaps what Bill really wanted to complain about was that the $100 laptops don’t run Windows and that Microsoft hadn’t figured out how to profit off of them yet.
0 computer, 0 laptop, bill gates, billg, harsh, harsh words, microsoft, mit laptop, mobile computing, origami, umpc
Related:
Posted March 19, 2006 by Casey
Categories: Politics & Controversy, Technology. Tags: bill gates, billg, computer, harsh, harsh words, laptop, microsoft, mit laptop, mobile computing, origami, umpc.
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS
TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
User contributed tags for this post:
uplapps:8509/ (68) - sex afrika (21) - afrika sexs (18) - african sexgirl (15) - sexgirl (15) - PORNO AFRIKA (12) - www.89.com.in (11) - gates (11) - africa sexgirl (10) - Bill Gates criticism (7) - africa sexs (7) - 89.com.in (6) - xxl.sexs (6) - xxl sexs (4) - afrika sexgirls (4) - bill gates is poor (4) - http://maisonbisson com/blog/post/10864/gates-harshes-p (4) - sex.afrika (3) - the richest man on earth com (3) - porno gates (3) - windows them (2) - africa sexgirls (2) - porno.afrıka (2) - www.sexs hard .com (2) - Bill Gates, critics (2) - buy gates (2) - www.sexs usa .tv .dr (2) - inside bill gates house (2) - http://maisonbisson com/blog/post/10864 (2) - sexs eropa (2) - sexgirls (2) - sexs.1 (2) - the gatest sex tv com (2) - bill gates buys africa (2) - bill gates who needs more (2) - sexgirl africa (2) - sexs afrika (2) - poor sexs (2) - afrika pono (2) - broadband to poor countries (2) - bill gates could buy africa (2) - 48 Bill Gates Who needs (2) - sexs boys xxl (2) - bill gates uses flash (2) - where can i buy windows (2) - buy laptop from bill gates (2) - who is the richest man on earth com (2) - sexs afrika -eropa (2) - african sexgirls (2) - windows sexs (2) - gates is poor (2) - afrikasexs (2) - get sexs photos of actors (2) - sexs.tv.1 (2) - bon.sexs (2) - sexgirl and mans (1) - gates windows complaint (1) - harsh sex.com (1) - afrika sexs tv (1) - sexs. 1 (1) - sexgirls africa (1) - porno mit africana (1) - pinkword,com.in (1) - www.89.com.in. (1) - SEXS.AFRİKA (1) - sex afrika xxl (1) - inurl: blog windows (1) - porno-afrika (1) - www.sexs hard .com porno (1) - SEXSAFRIKA (1) - where to buy window gates (1) - porno--afrika- (1) - s e x afrika (1) - sexs gate (1) - www.sexs house com tv (1) - sexgirl african (1) - g bil gates complain (1) - africa-sexgirls (1) - pono Afrika (1) - sexsi afrika (1) - african xxl sex (1) - afrıka sex tv.com (1) - video porno afrika (1) - sexgirls man (1) - porno.afrıka. (1) - videos porno eropa (1) - SEXS XXL (1) - afrika sexs schol (1) - flash storage movie gates (1) - bill gates computer for every child (1) - affordable windows bill gates (1) - bill gates buy countries (1) - F (1) - MIT buy windows (1) - sexs bil (1) - actors sexs photos (1) - billg imagesize large (1) - Pepper Pad clones (1) - afrika porno (1) - sexs africa (1) - bon sexs (1) - hand sexgirl (1) - xxl buy sexs (1) - ch ld afrika sexs (1) - bill gates controversy (1) - sexs gates (1) - bill gates carbon neutral (1) - bill gates critic (1) - poorest man on earth (1) - bill gates buys windows (1) - memory who needs more bill gates (1) - inurl:blog post a comment -"comments closed -"you must be logged in sexs (1) - video porno gates africana (1) - Bill Gates owns africa (1) - african sexgirl pictures (1) - sexgirls african. (1) - 89.com in africa (1) - bil gates (1) - buy one give one computer to every child bill gates (1) - Bill gates controversies (1) - harshes countries (1) - bill gates who needs more than (1) - www sexs xxl (1) - bill gates criticisms (1) - office microsoft (1) - buy windows 89 (1) - harsh sex com (1) - sexs ars (1) - africa-sexgirl (1) - mit laptop cloud (1) -
c bon