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A laptop promise

It may be as revolutionary in security terms as in economic terms

CAMBRIDGE: The $100 laptops planned for children around the world might turn out to be as revolutionary for their security measures as for their low-cost economics.

The One Laptop Per Child project, a non-profit venture begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aims to improve education by giving children brightly-coloured, hand-cranked, wireless enabled portable computers. Governments are to buy the laptops — beginning in 2007 with up to seven million machines in Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil and Argentina — and hand them to kids for them to own.

The machines have garnered the most attention — and some scepticism — for the design elements that will help keep their price low. Among other things, the computers will employ the free Linux operating system, flash memory instead of a hard drive and a microprocessor. — AP

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