OLPC: Give one, get one, enjoy free WiFi and play SimCity

November 14, 2007 at 11:12 am · Filed under Hardware, Peer-to-Peer, Industrial Design, Online Marketing, Social Networking, Applications, Games, User Interface

The One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC) XO laptop is on sale in the U.S. by way of their “Give One Get One” program. Sales kicked off on Monday (November 12th) and will be running until November 26th. As if getting your hands on the XO to kick the tires isn’t enough, T-Mobile is offering one year of complimentary WiFi access at their HotSpots for all donors. From the OLPC site:

This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).     

It was also announced last that Maxis (Electronic Arts) has donated the original SimCity game to the project, allowing for free distribution of the addictive classic which was originally developed for the Commodore 64.

Don Hopkins created a UNIX variant of the game in the past and has been advocating the use of SimCity for educational purposes for years. Hopkins commented on a Slashdot article earlier this year:

“The goal is to enable the open-source community to renovate SimCity and take it in new educational directions, by applying Seymour Papert’s ideas about constructionist education, Alan Kay’s ideas about interactive user interfaces and object-oriented programming, Ben Shneiderman’s ideas about direct manipulation and info visualization, and many exciting ideas about multiplayer games, blogging, storytelling, game mods, player created content, and lessons learned from World of WarCraft, The Sims, Spore, etc,”      

The cause sounds noble. One way or the other games will make it to the OLPC. Let’s hope the educational angle triumphs.More about SimCity on the OLPC XO from Don Hopkins:

• SimCity for OLPC (One Laptop Per Child): Applying Papert’s Ideas About Constructionist Education and Teaching Kids to Program
• History and Future of OLPC SimCity/Micropolis

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Laptop Computer Rentals at DFW

August 13, 2007 at 11:24 pm · Filed under Hardware

If you ever get stuck at the Dallas Fort Worth airport without a computer, you can still get your work done (or play solitaire) by renting a laptop at this cool kiosk. This is the first time I had seen an automated laptop rental kiosk anywhere. The rental procedure is straightforward: You swipe a credit card, give a thumb-print (I’m imagining to discourage you from walking off with two thousand dollars worth of notebook computer), and select the laptop you wish to rent. The computer is released from the shuttle it is secured in, and you’re off.I initially thought the rental might allow you to take the computer and return it elsewhere, but I’m not certain if that is the case. Regardless, the rental rates seemed reasonable at around seven dollars an hour. I wouldn’t think they would get too many people who would need rental of a laptop between normally scheduled flights (which usually have limited layovers), and this may in fact be the case (note that none of the laptops available for rental are checked out in the picture below-you can see the six computers securely in their shuttles).

All of the rentals were for Windows-based laptops—no Apple hardware rentals, even though the computer shown on the kiosk is a Mac.Beyond the laptop computer rental service, the PowerPort also provided travelers with facilities to charge cellphones, notebooks, and virtually anything that takes 120 volts. Connectivity? If memory serves right, there is free Public WiFi in the terminal.

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