ClappingTree’s Web 2.0

THANKS TO A G1:1 MESSAGE FROM YISHAY MOR, a researcher with London Knowledge Lab, I got this special chance to read a very focused and balanced review of one of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) machines — by SG, a 12-year-old! He wrote like an adult (and many say, better than an adult):

“My expectations for this computer were, I must admit, not very high. But it completely took me by surprise. It was cleverly designed, imaginative, straightforward, easy to understand (I was given no instructions on how to use it. It was just, “Here. Figure it out yourself.”), useful and simple, entertaining, dependable, really a “stick to the basics” kind of computer.

“…unfortunately, the internet is the only fast element of the computer. My main problem with this laptop is how very slow it is. It’s true that I am used to faster computers, but that’s not the problem. It’s just really slow. I had to wait two minutes to get onto one application. That’s just a little longer than I can accept. Also, it got slower and slower and slower the longer I went without rebooting it. I had to reboot it all the time. We’re talking once every two or three hours of use!”

For more details, go to the “Freedom to Tinker” blog.