Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini showed off a prototype of a low-cost laptop designed for use in education at an event in Brazil, according to a news report in a technology publication in that country. Mr. Otellini said the laptop, to be called Eduwise, will cost $400, have a computer chip made by Intel, and be available starting in 2007. The laptop apparently boasts more features than the $100 laptop being developed by the One Laptop Per Child project that MIT is involved in, but its larger pricetag would probably keep it out of range of students in developing nations. Intel’s Web site does not appear to provide any details about the forthcoming product, and attempts to reach a human public relations official were unsuccessful (though The Chronicle did fill out a request for comment form on the company’s "Corporate Press Relations" page, which promises a response "within two working days.") A blog post on Engadget points out that computer makers have promised cheap laptops in the past, and that the price always seems to creep up by the time the product is released.
For more on the One Laptop Per Child project, see an article from The Chronicle by Jeffrey R. Young.
Update: An Intel spokeswoman, Agnes Kwan, just called to confirm that the company is working on developing a low-cost laptop named Eduwise. "It’s a small laptop prototype with unique hardware and software features that meet the needs of students and teachers in developing countries," she said. When asked to give an example of a student-friendly feature, she said it was too soon to name any specifics. She said Intel won’t be manufacturing the device, and that the chip company is still talking to other corporate partners to see who will make them. Those manufacturers will set the final price for the laptop, Ms. Kwan said.
13 Responses to Intel Unveils $400 Laptop for Education
Jonathon Owen - January 24, 2012 at 2:18 am
“The Times sentence suggests that after a century or so of being incorrect, it’s now inching its way back to acceptance.”
Or perhaps it never really went away. It’s hard to extrapolate anything meaningful from a single data point.
nordicexpat - January 24, 2012 at 7:26 am
Maybe this is just my being pedantic, but the comma isn’t between an indirect and direct object in “It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru:” It’s between a direct object and a predicative complement (or object complement). An indirect object most often marks either the recipient, as in “he sent me a letter” (where me marks the person who received the letter), or benefactor, as in “he made me cake,” where “me” marks the benefactor from the action of baking a cake. These have alternations where the indirect object is an object of a preposition, “to” for recipients (“he sent a letter to me”), “for” for benefactors (“he made a cake for me”). The first Subaru is neither a recipient nor a benefactor. It is a direct object. In other constructions, it can be made the subject of a corresponding passive (the army made him president – he was made president by the army). The second Subaru then expresses a quality possessed by the direct object. That quality is the result of an action (make) performed on the object (Subaru) by the subject (what, understood as it). The difference between a ditransitive clause (indirect + direct object) and a complex transitive clause (direct object + predicative complement) is seen in the joke where one person says “make me a cake” (ditransitive sense intended) and the other person responds “Poof, you’re a cake” (where the original statement is understood as being a complex transitive).
I suspect is the repetition of “a Subaru” that motivates the comma (maybe the comma marks a pause common in speech). I can’t say I’ve noticed a large number of similar examples, although I’ve seen a few here and there.
usaret - January 24, 2012 at 9:45 am
I’m surprised you did not find two irritating usages that have become more prominent in the Times, particularly in the Sunday Magazine: the habit of beginng sentences with “which” used instead of a pronoun like “this” or “that,” and the misuse of the phrases “this begs the question” when the writer should use “raises” instead of “begs.”
lydiatimmins - January 24, 2012 at 10:00 am
I think commas are being used to indicate a breath or a pause in thought. Much like broadcast writing!
sicetnon - January 24, 2012 at 10:58 am
“Begging the question” and “raising the question” are not variants of the same idea, they are two completely different statements. To beg the question is to introduce as fact an unproven assertion. They are not interchangeable.
Charles Wells - January 24, 2012 at 10:58 am
Long sentences need something to tell the reader which part is subject phrase and which is predicate. But the comma is overused already. Perhaps the slash “/”.
Soon we will read everything on electronic tablets. Put the subject in blue and the predicate in red. This probably could be automated so it would work for most declarative sentences.
Examples (using the slash since color doesn’t work on this site):
The snow that fell last night/ has already melted.
The book with the pictures of the baby/ sits usually in the pink bedroom dresser.
The horse raced past the barn/ fell.
cleverclogs - January 24, 2012 at 11:06 am
I was just reading my local paper. I *wish* I had only quibbles with commas to report. One sports reporter spoke of a local high school basketball team “exercising their demons” and beating their rivals. All I can picture is a bunch of kids trotting the spawn of hell on a leash around the court before the big game.
I’m a fan of functional punctuation myself. Perhaps it’s all the time I spend with Emily Dickinson or grading student essays, but most of the time my criterion is: does it clarify or confuse?
22108469 - January 24, 2012 at 12:41 pm
“But too many seasoned copy editors had accepted the paper’s last buyout,
and were probably on a beach somewhere sipping a Corona.”
*******
That second clause gave pause. Somehow I doubt that a copy editor’s severance pay was sufficient to support a life of leisure on the beach.
Richard Grayson - January 24, 2012 at 1:17 pm
“The papers contained I don’t know how many thousands of sentences, yet the vast majority were as kosher as a Ratner’s onion roll!”
Ratner’s stopped being kosher over a decade ago.
–The Saturday Gingrich photo captions were indeed awful. I think the problem with “and President Carter” was caused by the photo, in which anyone could plainly see Jimmy Carter next to them. I assume the photo caption writer wanted to acknowledge that. Yet I could also plainly see Bob Dole on the other side of the Gingriches, and his presence went unmentioned.
Guest - January 24, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Ben Yagoda is probably grinding his teeth and banging his head of the floor for mistakenly calling an object complement an indirect object, but there be a lesson there be there.
English departments have taught and taught generations of students/educated citizens to believe that word carpentry is an algorithmic process governed by mechanical rules. Right is right and wrong is wrong. Learn the rules and apply them assiduously and, voila, well turned prose.
James McCrimmon used to joke about having “17 rules for the use of the comma, while the Good Lord got by with Ten Commandments.” (Even Woodrow Wilson got by with 14 points.) Even if you could memorize all 17, most people don’t have the sentence analysis skills necessary to apply them. Believe it or not, there’s an easier, more intuitively appealing way to do it. It’s heuristic, not algorithmic or trial and error. I won’t try to teach it here, but it ought to be common knowledge … and it’s not … … … … and that fact is what we should be talking about.
stefanpugh - January 25, 2012 at 1:26 pm
“But too many seasoned copy editors had accepted the paper’s last buyout,
and were probably on a beach somewhere sipping a Corona.”
I agree with the sentiments expressed in this piece; I would merely suggest that the editorS (above) were probably sipping CoronaS, rather than the same one!!! Sorry, such a pedant!
dank48 - February 2, 2012 at 2:33 pm
Which is what Usaret was saying, along with objecting to sentences beginning like this one does.
terrycollmann - February 5, 2012 at 11:31 am
I hope none was drinking a Corona. It’s dreadfull stuff. In addition, the clear glass bottles will rapidly ensure the beer becomes skunked in the sunlight.