2月3日，印度官方宣布即将推出“$10 Laptop”(即所谓“10美元计算机”)，作为其“民族教育使命”(National Mission on Education)的基础。
似乎在几年前，就听说联想要推出千元笔记本，心中曾暗自窃喜。大家别误会，本人收入不高，但自个买台电脑的米还是有的。喜的是电脑价格的下降，将使利用信息技术参与到每个儿童的学习中来成为可能。我等啊等啊等，心想我们的收入会提高的，电脑价格会下降的，总有一天，每个学生上课对着一台电脑会成为现实。
冷不丁的，忽然听到“10美元计算机”，是印度政府花了几年的时间，组织了几个团队开发出来的，就象大夏天忽然一道晴空霹雳，忽然打在脊梁骨上。据说中国古代仓颉造字时，“天雨粟，鬼夜哭”，一直不明白这是为什么？造个字嘛，不就拿个笔画画，这老天啊鬼啊什么的，至于这么大惊小怪嘛？不知道印度每个儿童都用上“$10 Laptop”时，印度的土地会不会噼沥啪啦的落下许多稻米来，不过我知道我可能会哭，放心，我不是鬼。就算是，也是N年以后的事。
其实我哭个什么劲，肉食者谋，要哭的是他们才对。不多说了，附上消息如下。你，会和我一道出冷汗吗？
India looks set to announce a low-cost laptop today which could be as cheap as 500 rupees ($10), according to the Times of India.
That’s one-tenth the price of the so-called $100 laptops Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child Project is aiming for. Laptops built by OLPC, which currently cost twice as much as the $100 target, are seen as too expensive by the Indian government. The cost is not quite down to $10 yet, but Indian officials say once large-scale production begin, it will be.
The ‘$10 laptop’ - which will have 2GB RAM, Wi-Fi capabilities and will run on 2W of power - has been under development for several years. Several groups have been working on the project, including students at Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and IIT-Madras.
“At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down,” Higher Education Secretary R P Agarwal told The Times.
The laptop is part of a government project called the National Mission on Education.