A Slight Delay

Nicholas Negroponte (MIT professor, Being Digital author) and his OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) organization have unveiled the XO2, their second-generation laptop, according to an article from the BBC’s website.

The Mac Book Air it ain’t. What it is, however, may prove more important to OLPC’s target “market”: classrooms and children in developing nations. Like the first-generation XO, which has shipped 600,000 units since it was unveiled late in 2005, the XO2 is intended as a low-cost learning tool for classrooms in locales as widespread as Brazil, Nigeria, and China. (more…)

Case in point as to why this blog is titled “A Slight Delay”: Some time back, I had the idea to do a “Turn Off Your Computer Day.” Turns out, they beat me to it.

They, in this case, are Michael Taylor, Denis Bystrov and Ashutosh Rajekar. Since anyone who advocates a less plugged-in life usually gets pegged as a Luddite, it should be noted that Messrs. Taylor, Bystrov and Rajekar’s professions both heavily involve computing. What they’re suggesting isn’t the eradication of computers and all that goes with them; rather, they’d like people to realize that there is a world beyond the one of Warcraft, or of Messenger, MP3 downloads, blog surfing, or any of the hundreds of other timekillers that exist on our desktops and online.  (more…)