G33K!

Here’s what I want in a laptop: something light. Something small-ish, but with a screen big enough to properly display e-books, PDFs, comics, videos or any of the other media I like to browse. A functional web-browser. A word processor. Wi-fi. And cheap. And now, thanks to the One Laptop per Child initiative (laptop.org) and their XO laptops, my dream is realised. Formerly known as the $100 Laptop, the OLPC’s mission is to get personal computer technology to kids in impoverished countries where they otherwise wouldn’t have access to them. Not just one per classroom, but one per child, so the kids can take them home, learn programming and get involved in the global community. Admittedly, the $100 dream is somewhat dashed as they’ve pushed closer to $200, but that’s still a remarkable sum, considering what they can do. Pre-loaded with an adapted version of Redhat’s Fedora Linux 6, it will also come with a web-browser, document viewer, word processor, RSS reader, email client, chat client, VOIP client and a ton of other programs, including five different programming environments. Hardware-wise, the laptop weighs about a 1.5 kilos, is moisture and dust resistant and has a reversible screen (which basically folds it into a tablet for easier doc reading or video watching). The monitor is 7.5” with a resolution of 1200×900, and you can turn the backlight off to conserve power during the day. With a CPU clock speed of 433 Mhz, 256 megs of RAM and a only gig of hard-drive flash space, you’re not going to be doing any serious computing, but it’s not built for graphic designers or game nerds—it’s built for kids—and besides, if you want to bring your movies along with you, stick them on a flash drive; it comes with three USB slots. The XO-1 also has Wifi, batteries that last for between 17 and 22 hours depending on usage (and can be recharged up to 2000 times) and an expandable solar panel. But if this laptop is for children in poor countries, isn’t it still a bit of a pipe dream to talk about getting one? Well, this is where you get to feel good about yourself, because for two weeks starting November 12th, OLPC is offering a “Give One, Get One” deal for North American residents. Spend $400 and you not only get one of the laptops, one will be given to a needy child somewhere. And I guarantee you that if this is the laptop of my dreams, it’s most definitely the laptop of some poor child’s dreams, and if all it costs is $200 to give the star-dusted memories of my first computer to a kid in Africa or Asia, that’s cheap by half.

NEWS: _Radiohead has officially broken all the rules with the DRM-free MP3 release of their new album In Rainbows over the internet for whatever fans wanted to pay. They reportedly made somewhere between $6-10M for themselves through the manoeuver, and will only add to that now that the CD version is available. In the wake of the shit hitting the digital fan, Nine Inch Nails has also announced a complete break from the labels and Oasis and Jamiroquai are reportedly considering the option as well. Yes, goths, assholes and fuzzy-hatted techno-hippies—these are your new e-heroes. _In the obituaries section, let us lower our heads and have a moment of silence as we remember Oink and TV-links and everything they gave us over their all too brief lives. Nevar forget.

JUST RELEASED: Okay, you could go out and pick up the complete box sets of either My So-Called Life or Seinfeld on DVD, and White Rapids by Pascal Blanchet is one of the most gorgeous and intriguing graphic novels I’ve seen all year (based on a real Canadian town!), but all you should be thinking about this month are the Christmas video game floodgates opening wide. On the PC front, get ready for MMOs. Hellgate: London and Richard Garriott’s new sci-fi epic Tabula Rasa, as well as Gears of War and Unreal Tournament 3. The anticipated Assassin’s Creed will be launching for both the Xbox 360 and PS3, while Army of Two, Time Crisis 4, and Medal of Honor: Airborne will be wending their way exclusively to the PS3. The Wii has two very strong contenders this season in Super Mario Galaxy and Link’s Crossbow Training, and the DS is getting Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings and a brand new port of Mario Party. Even the PSP is getting some cool new action with Silent Hill: Origins. As far as multi-platform launches go, Guitar Hero III will be available on the Xbox 360, Wii, PS2, PS3, Mac and PC, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is appearing on Xbox 360, PC, PS3 and DS(!). If you remember only one thing through the shopping haze this holiday season, let it be this: if you spend all your money on new games instead leaving some for of Christmas presents, your family will sell your consoles and disown you. Ho ho ho.