Good idea of the week

An MIT professor is attempting to develop a PC that would be cheap and hardy: his prototype is foldable in various ways, amenable to hand-cranking when power is unavailable, and should cost under $100. [As a bonus, the machines run on open-source Linux, meaning that freeware may be available for many of the user's software needs.]

Professor Negroponte came up with the idea for a cheap computer for all after visiting a Cambodian village.

His non-profit One Laptop Per Child group plans to have up to 15 million machines in production within a year.

The first models will go to Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, and South Africa, and Massachusetts' governor Romney intends to buy them for every middle- and highschool student in the state. Now that's empowerment.

(via the Huffington Post)