ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Low-cost computers meant to usher poor children worldwide into the digital age are being mass produced in China as US nonprofit One Laptop Per Child strives to deliver on its promise.

The first of the XO laptops being built at a Quanta Computer facility in Changshu are destined for Uruguay, marking a milestone for the charity group founded by Nicholas Negroponte in Massachusetts two years ago.

"Against all the naysayers ... we have developed and now manufactured the world's most advanced and greenest laptop and one designed specifically to instill a passion for learning in children," Negroponte said.

A challenge for the organization has been that governments have not backed effusive words of support with willing flows of cash to buy laptops for children inside their borders.

It is hoped that a "Give One Get One" (G1G1) campaign starting Monday will boost orders by providing an incentive to people in more prosperous countries.

For every laptop donated for a child, the donor gets a laptop. The original price was to be 100 dollars (US) per laptop but nearly doubled as costs climbed after Negroponte launched the initiative in 2005.

Telecom firm T-Mobile USA is offering people a year of free access to its nearly 8,500 wireless Internet hotspots in the United States if they become G1G1 donors.

The world's largest video game maker, Electronic Arts in Northern California, said this week they are giving the original "SimCity" to OLPC to put on laptops for free.

The "SimCity" franchise debuted in 1989. Players build communities from scratch, laying out roads, housing, factories, shops, tax codes, power plants and more in order to create places where citizens can work and live happily.

Acting as virtual "mayors," players must be ready to deal with disasters such as earthquakes, fires and floods.

"Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities," said EA vice president Steve Seabolt.

"There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it's a creativity tool. The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun."

SimCity has been used in US schools.

The list of companies backing OLPC with cash, technology or other resources includes Google, Intel, eBay, Advance Micro Devices, and News Corporation.

XO laptop operating systems are based on free open-source software. The machines are designed to use less than a tenth the power than standard laptops and come with solar or hand-crank charging options.

XO laptops are billed as a "kids machine" designed for rugged environments. The computers have built in video and still cameras as well as wireless Internet connectivity.

OLPC will begin distributing XO laptops in Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia and India by the end of the year, according to EA.

Negroponte is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is the younger brother of the US deputy secretary of state.

OLPC's stated mission is "to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently affordable to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression."

The group envisions selling laptops to governments in developing nations, which give them to school-aged children and have stakes in supporting their use.

"Imagine the impact of every child owning a laptop computer that he/she can use in school and take home," OLPC said in a written release.

"By empowering children to educate themselves, a new generation will ultimately be better prepared to tackle the other serious problems (poverty, malnutrition, disease) facing their socirties."

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Low-cost computers meant to usher poor children worldwide into the digital age are being mass produced in China as US nonprofit One Laptop Per Child strives to deliver on its promise.

The first of the XO laptops being built at a Quanta Computer facility in Changshu are destined for Uruguay, marking a milestone for the charity group founded by Nicholas Negroponte in Massachusetts two years ago.

"Against all the naysayers ... we have developed and now manufactured the world's most advanced and greenest laptop and one designed specifically to instill a passion for learning in children," Negroponte said.

A challenge for the organization has been that governments have not backed effusive words of support with willing flows of cash to buy laptops for children inside their borders.

It is hoped that a "Give One Get One" (G1G1) campaign starting Monday will boost orders by providing an incentive to people in more prosperous countries.

For every laptop donated for a child, the donor gets a laptop. The original price was to be 100 dollars (US) per laptop but nearly doubled as costs climbed after Negroponte launched the initiative in 2005.

Telecom firm T-Mobile USA is offering people a year of free access to its nearly 8,500 wireless Internet hotspots in the United States if they become G1G1 donors.

The world's largest video game maker, Electronic Arts in Northern California, said this week they are giving the original "SimCity" to OLPC to put on laptops for free.

The "SimCity" franchise debuted in 1989. Players build communities from scratch, laying out roads, housing, factories, shops, tax codes, power plants and more in order to create places where citizens can work and live happily.

Acting as virtual "mayors," players must be ready to deal with disasters such as earthquakes, fires and floods.

"Players learn to use limited resources to build and customize their cities," said EA vice president Steve Seabolt.

"There are choices and consequences, but in the end, it's a creativity tool. The game should prove to be an incredibly effective way of making the laptop relevant, engaging, and fun."

SimCity has been used in US schools.

The list of companies backing OLPC with cash, technology or other resources includes Google, Intel, eBay, Advance Micro Devices, and News Corporation.

XO laptop operating systems are based on free open-source software. The machines are designed to use less than a tenth the power than standard laptops and come with solar or hand-crank charging options.

XO laptops are billed as a "kids machine" designed for rugged environments. The computers have built in video and still cameras as well as wireless Internet connectivity.

OLPC will begin distributing XO laptops in Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Haiti, Cambodia and India by the end of the year, according to EA.

Negroponte is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who is the younger brother of the US deputy secretary of state.

OLPC's stated mission is "to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently affordable to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression."

The group envisions selling laptops to governments in developing nations, which give them to school-aged children and have stakes in supporting their use.

"Imagine the impact of every child owning a laptop computer that he/she can use in school and take home," OLPC said in a written release.

"By empowering children to educate themselves, a new generation will ultimately be better prepared to tackle the other serious problems (poverty, malnutrition, disease) facing their socirties."

ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD

IPhone Goes on Sale in Europe

(By Matt Moore, AP Business Writer )

Hoping to Build on US Success, Apple Launches iPhone in Germany, Britain
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Customers in Germany and Britain lined up to buy the iPhone as it debuted there Friday, with Apple Inc. hoping to replicate the success that the combination cell phone, music player and Web browser has seen in the United States.

Apple hopes to sell 10 million iPhones in 2008, helped by its launch in Asia next year. In Germany, the phone went on sale at more than 700 T-Mobile shops, including one in Cologne that opened just after midnight with some 350 customers already waiting outside. By 5 p.m., Deutsche Telekom AG, which owns T-Mobile, said it sold more than 10,000 iPhones in Germany through its shops and online. Johannes Krause, 32, waited for nearly four hours to get into a store, saying he had wanted to get his hands on an iPhone since June, when Apple unveiled the device in the United States. "It's the first mobile Internet device that makes it easy to surf the Web," Krause said.

Others were drawn by the intense media coverage in the U.S. "I just want to be the first to touch it, play with it and try it," said Reinhold Steinwasser, 54, likening the launch to the appearance of color televisions in Germany in the 1960s, when people would stand in front of department store windows marveling at them. In central London, about 50 people lined up outside the Apple Store before iPhones went on sale at 6 p.m. France Telecom will sell the iPhone in France through its Orange wireless arm, starting Nov. 29.

The iPhone's price tag drew complaints Friday. In Germany, it costs about $587, on top of a contract through T-Mobile starting at $72 a month and a $37 "installation" fee.

"It's absurdly expensive," said Christian Kiew, 20, who said the device was aimed more at professionals than young buyers. Jonathan Arber, an analyst with London-based Ovum, said the costs could put off some would-be buyers. "The relatively expensive contracts on offer with the iPhone will represent an attractive revenue stream over 24 months, but the high up-front and monthly cost and long lock-in could put off some users in a market where free handsets are the norm," he said.

Apple cut the price of the 8-gigabyte iPhone in the United States by $200 to $399 in September. And it apologized to those who had paid full price over the previous 10 weeks and offered them $100 in Apple Store credits. Consumers in Britain will pay $566 for the 8-gigabyte model. Both European price tags include value-added tax.
Many iPhones found a back door into Europe before Friday, but it is unclear how many. Programmers around the globe collaborated to "unlock" iPhones to work with SIM cards tied to other carrier networks. Apple officials estimated last month that buyers of 250,000 iPhones sold by then intended to unlock them.

Online auction Web site eBay said it would permit people to sell iPhones in Britain, but under certain conditions.

"We're certainly anticipating some heated bidding on these," said Richard Kanareck, an eBay spokesman in Britain.

IPhone Goes on Sale in Europe

NEPAL SEEKS IAEA MEMBERSHIP

INTERNATIONAL ATOMIC ENERGY AGENCY (IAEA) has approved Nepal’s entry as a member. According to senior scientific advisor to Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Devidutta Paudel, the country would benefit mainly in medical and agriculture sectors.

Without being member of IAEA, Nepal could not buy high doses of radio isotopes and other nuclear material which are important in various research work and in mutating the genes of plants and aimals, as well as in the treatment of cancer. It is due to non-membership of the agency, a Chinese company declined sell bareggy therapy, important in treating cancer patients, to Bharatpur Cancer Hospital, Chitawan, Nepal.

NEPAL SEEKS IAEA MEMBERSHIP

TRY POWER SAVING GOOGLE

The black version of the Google homepage is called Blackle. It is designed by Google to save a minuscule amount of energy compared to a white page. Some people claim that an all-black Google will save a massive 750 megawatt-hours a year. An all white web page uses about 74 watts to display, while an all black page uses only 59 watts. This has not been independently verified. Don’t worry; it does not boycott Google’s search criteria. Because it uses the Google engine so the search results are the same. Its drawback is a black-on-white page is still far easier to read. And with Google integrating its search into all the new browsers, many people don’t actually visit Google’s homepage anymore.

Visit: www.blackle.com

TRY POWER SAVING GOOGLE

JAPAN’S FIRST LUNAR ORBITER

Japan’s first lunar orbiter successfully blasted into space on September 14, 2007. The lunar orbiter is aiming to collect data for research of the moon’s origin and evolution. Japan has been expanding its space operations and has set a goal of sending an astronaut to the moon by 2020. Japan aims to build a station on the surface of the moon by 2025.

JAPAN’S FIRST LUNAR ORBITER

WORLD'S FIRST QUADRUPLETS

The world’s first test tube quadruplets (four children) born at a single birth) were born on January 6, 1984 at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. According to Dr Andrew Spiers, leader of the surgical team, it was the first time the mother had carried all four successfully.

WORLD'S FIRST QUADRUPLETS

BRAILLE SYSTEM OF WRITING

Louis Braille, blind from the age of three, was first a pupil, then a teacher in the Blind children’s institution in Paris, France. In 1829, at the age of 20 he published an adaptation of a system of embossed writing invented by Captain Charles Barbier, a French Military Officer. In 1834, Braille modified the system. In 1854 Braille system was officially recognized.

BRAILLE SYSTEM OF WRITING