[Oberon] Re. OLPC - One Laptop Per Child

[easlab at absamail.co.za]

Douglas G. Danforth wrote:
> http://slashdot.org/ had a recent article about the MIT project
> "One Laptop Per Child"
> (see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines)

The biggest single wiki 'page' I've seen so far, with quite some in 
depth work on the subject.
And they've also recognised the power of the wiki format.

> In that documentation the following caught my attention since this
> aspect is similar to Dr. Wirth's design for Oberon.  Is anyone at
> ETHZ interacting with the MIT group on OLPC?
> 
> 
> "Simplicity
> We designed the entire laptop interface with a goal of simplicity. 
---snip --

I've been watching OLPC closely, because I've been on the mailing list 
of the simputer for years. Simputer apparently failed.  IMO because
it didn't build a user base.  The idea of collaborating freely, was 
apparently too strange for the Indian based community. OTOH I think
its basic idea was more valid that MIT's OLPC, which I fear doesn't
solve the power-supply problem.

OLPC_Human_Interface_Guidelines sounds good and I think some of
its ideas will go into other products. But the original idea of villagers
who are 100 km from mains electricity having computer access seems
likely to fail.

== Chris Glur.