[gui-talk] Fwd: India has developed the world's cheapest computer

[James Pepper]

Well there are a few things that will make it even more complicated for
you.  It uses 7 bit programming so they can incorporate all of the
characters of Indian languages. There is also a move to use various indian
languages in programming instead of English.  On the other hand, India has a
higher percentage of the blind in its population than any other nation on
the earth, so they have a good incentive to make this as accessible as
possible.  This computer is being sent out to 50 million people to enable
communications, it i a government program to connect people together all
over India. Literate people. But on the other hand it is so rudimentary that
you will not have a lot of the problems you pick up in complex
programs elsewhere.

James Pepper


On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 8:09 PM, Steve Pattison <srp at internode.on.net>wrote:

> This computer sounds interesting particularly for people who are poor
> and living in countries where there is widespread poverty but the
> question that isn't answered in this article is can the computer be made
> accessible.  -Steve.
>
> From: the Desk of Mr. Malcolm nemoy.malcolm at gmail.com
> To: Technology list for the Blind and Vision Impaired
> blindtech at blindtech-list.info
>
> NEW DELHI | Fri Jul 23, 2010 8:43am EDT
>
> NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has come up with the world's cheapest
> "laptop,"
> a touch-screen computing device that costs $35.
>
> India's Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal this week unveiled
> the low-cost computing device that is designed for students, saying his
> department had started talks with global manufacturers to start mass
> production.
>
> "We have reached a (developmental) stage that today, the motherboard, its
> chip, the processing, connectivity, all of them cumulatively cost around
> $35, including memory, display, everything," he told a news conference.
>
> He said the touchscreen gadget was packed with Internet browsers, PDF
> reader
> and video conferencing facilities but its hardware was created with
> sufficient flexibility to incorporate new components according to user
> requirement.
>
> Sibal said the Linux based computing device was expected to be introduced
> to
> higher education institutions from 2011 but the aim was to drop the price
> further to $20 and ultimately to $10.
>
> The device was developed by research teams at India's premier
> technological
> institutes, the Indian Institute of Technology and the Indian Institute of
> Science.
>
> India spends about three percent of its annual budget on school education
> and has improved its literacy rates to over 64 percent of its 1.2 billion
> population but studies have shown many students can barely read or write
> and
> most state-run schools have inadequate facilities.
>
> Regards Steve
> Email:  srp at internode.on.net
> MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com
> Skype:  steve1963
> Twitter:  steve9782
>
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