“After two-and-a-half years of relentless organizing, product
development, and evangelizing, the so-called $100 laptop is ready
to go into production in October. At a time like this, you’d think
that übertechnology visionary Nicholas Negroponte and his team
at the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization would be
stockpiling champagne for a blowout celebration. Far from it.“While the notebook computer for schoolchildren in
underdeveloped nations is just about ready for prime time, the goal
of distributing tens of millions of the cute green-and-white
machines still seems a far-off dream. The reasons: The computers,
now called XO Laptops, will cost about $188 each to produce
initially, nearly twice the original estimate; and, so far, not a
single government has written a check…”