Laptop astounds student
A LAPTOP computer set to revolutionise education world-wide is the prized possession of an Adelaide electrical engineering student.
University of Adelaide student Joel Stanley, 21, is one of only two Australians to own an early-model laptop from the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program.
The brainchild of US MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte, the program aims to provide laptops to children in developing countries such as Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand and South Africa at a cost of less than $127.
A computer enthusiast, Mr Stanley won a rare model of the laptop, which is still being developed, at a software conference in Sydney last month.
A second laptop went to another young man in Perth.
Labelled the "children's machine", the computers are the size of a textbook and weigh about as much as a lunch box.
They have an AC adaptor and a hand-crank generator for when there is no electricity available.
The durable, flexible laptops have USB ports, screens that can be read in full sunlight, wireless internet connections and are mobile phone-enabled, although they have limited storage.
Mr Stanley said his model cost about $127 to make.
He was impressed that the cheap computers used technology not yet available in high-end commercial laptops.
"The technology is really, really cool and you wonder why you can't get it in an expensive laptop when they can make this one for $100," he said.
"Because I'm used to something different, it (the technology) seems a bit weird but these kids will never have even heard of Windows so they might take to it a bit easier."
Mr Stanley, who hoped to develop games for the laptop in his spare time, said the computers were a good way for children to teach themselves.
"Instead of going to school to use the computers and going home, the kids will own the laptops," he said.
"It will give them something to do in the evenings as this is the first time many of them will have seen artificial light."
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