This week's column by Bob Cringley talks about AMD's new $140 computer, the Personal Internet Computer (PIC.) Meanwhile, Nicholas Negroponte is running around Davos trying to get the big computer companies to put together a $100 PC for the third world. This guy tried to replace the 10GB HD on his system with 2GB of Flash memory to improve the longevity and power consumption of his system. It didn't work, sadly.
All these are great examples of a trend I hope we see more of - the drastic cheapening of computer power, making it more available to the poor. Also, if the costs can be kept down and some of the parts can be miniaturized further, something like the PIC would make a perfect super-Palm Pilot, something with fast Wifi Internet access, all the usual personal organizer stuff, and as much HD space as an iPod.
Pushed a bit further, these super-Palms, combined with widespread solar power and long-distance wireless networking could provide something that Bucky Fuller and Arthur C. Clarke both advocated, an electronic teaching assistant. Download your (hopefully Open Source) math and history textbook in to something that can talk back to you, and bring basic K-12 education to the third world. Clarke specifically called it an assistant because he believed that while you may never have enough teachers, we'll always need them. This would just be a tool to assist them.
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