Greg and Kat's blog

Pay attention to this sentence, because it’s not one you have probably heard before: This week, I bought three new laptops for $800.

This morning, the One Laptop Per Child project opened up their give one, get one program, and I was there. For US$400, I bought two OLPC XO laptops. One goes to me, one to some kid in a developing country.

So, I suppose that’s a halfway decent thing to do. But, I mostly wanted to get my hands on one of these things that we have all heard so much about.

Second, I ordered an ASUS Eee. For $400, it’s a more-or-less fully functional Linux laptop and about the size of a small hardcover book. I’m hoping this one has a little more real utility.

The specs sound a little thin for a modern laptop: 900MHz, 512 MB RAM, 4GB storage (flash, not hard drive), 800×480 display. But, that would have been a pretty snappy laptop 4 or 5 years ago. How much has my workflow really changed in the last 4 years? [A laptop isn’t a primary PC for me. It’s a thing to use when not in my office or at home.]

I know low-end mainstream laptops are bumping down in the $500–600 range, but there’s that part about weighing less than a kilogram and fitting in my man-purse. How could this not be ideal for travelling?

I’m also hoping it can ride on a iRobot Create and run Player for a sweet little autonomous robotics platform. If they come out with the $200 model, that would give us a full setup for <$500 that high school kids could play with.

BTW, thanks all for the interest in my CMPT 120 assignment. I went with controlling the ghosts in a pacman-like game. That should keep ’em busy.