Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek) [LWN.net]

Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek)

Posted Dec 16, 2005 19:56 UTC (Fri) by Duncan (guest, #6647)
In reply to: Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek) by sbergman27
Parent article: Quanta Building MIT's $100 Laptops (eWeek)

Yes, there's a hand crank. It's an important part of the requirements,
given that electricity isn't available in a significant amount of the
locations these are targeted at, and while batteries are available almost
everywhere these would be placed, batteries cost real money!

Keep in mind that these are relatively low power units. The designers are
shooting for 1:10 ratio on the cranking. Crank for two minutes to fill
the batteries, use it for 20.

As I mentioned in another post, and I just mentioned here about the lack
of electricity, some articles have mentioned that the preliminary units
they've already made and placed in places like Cambodia, can, due to the
lack of electricity, sometimes be the primary and brightest light source
in the home as well as the only computer. So, these do dual duty.
Imagine someone setting it to all-white screen and cranking it a couple
minutes three times an hour (well, perhaps four times an hour, when it's
set all-white), to be used as their light source!

Duncan

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$.30 here, $.30 there...

Posted Dec 19, 2005 17:25 UTC (Mon) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]

Pretty soon, you're talking about real money.

(No :-)

$.30 here, $.30 there...

Posted Dec 20, 2005 8:40 UTC (Tue) by Duncan (guest, #6647) [Link]

Costs add up, absolutely. However, the hand-crank was part of the project
definition, because these things must be usable where electricity isn't
available.

As for batteries, they may be fairly cheap, but when cash income may be
less than a dollar a day, and that may be for a family of 10, and
batteries aren't for barter, only cash...

Duncan (who grew up in Kenya, East Africa, in the 70s, and knows a bit
about such things, tho only as a missionary kid, thankfully!)