$100 laptop project: Launched

   Nicholas Negroponte, founding director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab (MIT) who proposed to build a $100 laptop computer, for education programs throughout the third world could reach users by July this year.

   The impossible has almost been done, and it looks like some new technology has been created altrough critics such as Bill Gates, laughed at the proposal as being not practical and technically impossible.

   Reuters reports that the first countries to sign up to buying the machine include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand.

   The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), a project started at MIT Labs in 2004 has a new name: XO machine.

   XO machine features are: a 366MHz AMD processor, 128Mb of Ram and 512Mb of Flash memory storage and also has two USB ports to which more storage could be attached.. Prices are expected to drop over time as components become cheaper. A single unit by 2010 is expected to costs a mere $50. Internet connectivity will be delivered through a Wi-Fi mesh network that relays the signal back to a base station at the school which has a satellite connection.

   The computer will run using a cut-down version of the open source Linux operating system and has been designed to work differently to a Microsoft Windows or Apple machine from a usability perspective.

   The machine comes with a web browser, word processor and RSS reader, for accessing the web feeds that so many sites now offer.

   Trial versions of the OS developed dor XO machine can be downloaded to be tested out by technically-minded computer users around the world.