Intel tries to kill "One Child per Laptop" U.N. initative

In 2005, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte and the United Nations together assembled industry, academia and global citizen supporters to produce the world's first "laptop for the poor" which can be also be used as an electronic book.


These green machines are powered by a windup crank and "mesh networking" to allow many laptops to share one internet connection. Many developing countries have already bought thousands of the cheap learning tools for their citizens. As Professor Negroponte notes


"Studies have shown that kids take up computers much more easily in the comfort of warm, well-lit rich country living rooms, but also in the slums and remote areas all around the developing world."


However, the U.N.'s decision to use chip maker AMD as the flash memory card manufacturer has sparked a brutal economic war with their long time rival Intel. Intel has been distributing reports to poor government's with titles like "The short comings of One Child per Laptop" while pushing their alternative, US $200 laptop "Classmates".

As John Negroponte said, shame on Intel.