So I see this http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/08/01/0321223.shtml , an event made all the more relevant by a conversation I had with some friends about the whole cheap laptops for everyone gig. Last time I checked we, the inhabitants of the so called developed world, were throwing out serviceable computers at a ridiculous rate, palming them off to third world countries to be disposed of. Disposal involves children using acids and other toxic or harmful tools to draw out whatever precious metals are embedded within those silicon studded circuit boards, that they might use the resulting goods in barter for necessities of life.

Now while all this is going on, some folk have the not totally crazy idea of creating a vehicle to get computers into the hands of these third world kids. Don't get me wrong, I like the concept, I think that the internet provides access to fantastic amounts of knowledge and to great online communities, and I certainly wish it existed when I was a wee-un; these kids could really benefit from said scheme.

My beef is with the sadly short-sighted nature of this project. Even if we ignore the fact that we throw out heaps of computers that could be refurbished for use by these kids (and these refurbished computers could quite comfortably run the required software) we are still faced with serious infrastructural obstacles and environmental impacts.

What are cheap laptops made from? plastic, produced from everyone's new favourite ever-depleting resource, oil. What does a laptop run on? your lap, last time I checked my lap does not have a power outlet, although it may be near one... my point is that they run on batteries, batteries which are both a pain in the arse to make and a nightmare to dispose of (wassat about their limited life? x-zachery). Now lets get back to that power socket that sits so deliciously close to my/your lap, third world power sucks, there is not enough of it and it tends to require conditioning at the outlet so that it does not fry that nice new cheap laptop. Incidentally Timmy in his family shack situated in your choice of third world seat of civilisation probably does not have access to a power socket whether to charge that battery or drive his machine in place of the battery. Next problem, ah that connection to the oh so precious internet, just plug it in to the phone socket... yeah right, what phone socket or better still what ISP account, in most of these places the telephone is a community thing, like a town hall, ten minutes down the road and always in use.

So, and I would like to preface this with a big ol' congratulations for the 4 million unit order, why in the name of sweet fancy moses are these funds not being used to refurbish the existing excess of computers that we expel like some evolutionary by-product and send them to the schools rather than the dumps, or failing that the closest community building, where they can be used by young and old, and the financial difference can be used to upgrade the infrastructure to the level required to even support all this tech. If those 4 million cheap laptops are ever built and delivered then a couple of years down the track there is going to be a huge headache for whoever is responsible for disposing of them. In the end game at least it will be keeping the kids they are meant to liberate in acid... I mean work, after all someone will need to harvest those precious metals for food and clothes.

Song for today:
He Thought of Cars - Blur

-C