It was reported on monday by notebookreview.com: “Asus shows off revolutionary new dual-display concept notebook”.

Asus concept (source notebookreview.com)

My question is: how come it wasn’t revolutionary when One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) announced a very similar concept almost a year ago, called the OLPC XO-2.

Actually the the one by OLPC look cooler than the Asus one.

I guess the editor at notebookreview was quoting Asus because is how they made the announcement according to this news piece.

It’s funny how much the words revolutionary, unique, special and first of its kind, are used today. Correct if I’m wrong, but the last time a product launch that lived to its hype of calling it revolutionary was the iPhone. Even if its not perfect, it changed the industry. Other examples:

• the Asus Eee was revolutionary the notebook industry, what manufacturer doesn’t produce netbooks,
• the Wii was revolutionized the gamming industry by producing a console appealing to non gamers,
• Guitar Hero, not sure about it but hell it changed how we look at music and games

However, Asus dual-screen is not, you can’t call it revolutionary when somebody already has published the same concept.

Sometimes we try to impress other so much, that the only ones that are impress are ourselves. I guess the lasting impressions are those that don’t seek to impress.

Recently I had the experience of “playing” around with a Asus Eee PC 900, to be mo specific I was fixing some issues with the wireless. You can find the post here.

I always been a fan of the Asus Eee, from the time that the rumors started. Just the concept of having a very portable laptop a netbook, as a traveling replacement of the my laptop, was very attractive. Furthermore, with all the talks of OLPC, and the project not going as planned, I thought this was the answer: give every student a Asus Eee. The main issue with the OLPC, is that it tried to do a lot of things, I guess from the start,  is not possible.

I was kind of disappointed when it wasn’t sold at 200 USD, but at a higher price 300 USD. At 200, it will be at the price as some mobile phones out there, meaning it could be a true road warrior laptop. I guess they didn’t take into account distribution channels, when first teasing us with that price. Still they had sold well and now every manufacturer has a netbook in their line up. The problem I have with current offers is that they come to close to the notebook, in features or/and price. So, manufacturers and consumers need to define what is a netbook and what is a laptop and forget about the offers in the middle. If not done, the true essence of the netbook will be lost: a machine that is light and useful enough to travel with, cheap enough to replace if damage.

The picture shown above is from a article that compares the OLPC to the first Asus Eee PC. I never been closed to OLPC XO but I can tell you some things about the Asus Eee PC 900. The Eee PC can be a nice replacement of the OLPC. The keyboard might need a learning curve, because of the small key, however people learn to type email in the “crack berries”, and small keyboards are not a problem for children and their small fingers. However you have the price challenge; why not continue producing the original Eee PC 701 for educational purposes. Also they are cheap enough, and reaching economies of scale may do the trick.

The netbooks need a Operating system, so if the Eee PC will be used for educational purposes, it needs to be tailored for that. Edubuntu could be used, which is the Ubuntu distribution for the classroom. It’s free, meaning that no price increase is necessary, and trust me they will not care if its Linux, OS X or Windows, the opportunity to learn, is what they care and what we should be caring about. However there is a challenge with Ubuntu on the Asus Eee. Ubuntu needs to tailor a distro that fits and works perfectly with the netbooks. While using it, it was evident that for Ubuntu, the Asus Eee is jut another Laptop, which shouldn’t be the case. Screen space management is important with the windows system, maybe this is a task of Gnome or KDE, however it requires attention. Performance  was not an issue, although it took long time to compile the wireless drivers. The desktop environment was responsive, but  it didn’t look that smooth (again dito to Gnome and KDE).  Finally it should work without looking for drivers, fixing code, tweaking the OS, etc. Installation should and operation should be a breeze.

There… I just solve one the world problems. Yeah sure, its good to dream.

The point here is that using “off the shelf” components may be enough to solve some problems, instead of going into a journey of designing and building the perfect computer for the third world. If UNICEF decides, today we will provide kids in x and y countries with learning tools, using off the shelf components, its possible, no point on waiting and talking: execution is the key. If they don’t have electricity to run it, then here is a good excuse to use some of the war money to provide it to them. While providing the electricity, they can check and also provide them with water and Internet. Using Asus Eee PC 701 and Edubuntu could be more successful than the OLPC XO. Also, if they don’t have electricity to charge it, unfortunately they have to be excluded (temporally ,while they find a way to provide them with the electricity).

Every human being is entitled to education, health, water and electricity, we don’t need to reinvent the wheel to provide them with that, just use what we have.

Update: apparently there is already a Eee ubuntu distro: Ubuntu EEE. I will see if I can convience my classmate of installing it in his Eee. Will keep you posted..

By the way Windows 7 is also being tailored to run on this netbooks check it out here.

Recently I did the post “Why aren’t you a millionaire entrepreneur?” which show a video, used to point out, it might just take to change the lens of how we view life. With the purpose to identify a profitable business opportunity (if you’re in the mood of a wacky explanation then check the post). I got a comment on this post stating (in the commentator’s opinion) that being a millionaire doesn’t guarantee that will be happy since she knows many that are not, and prefers a “simple life”. The comment turn into food for thought and this post was a result.

First concrete thing that came into my mind was that is not that hard to be considered a millionaire. To qualify as a millionaire as define by the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, the estimated wealth should be a million or more (as of dollars or pounds). If you think about it, that isn’t much when you consider a person with a house, a couple of cars and a paying job that provides you with 200,000 USD a year (after taxes) of course assuming that the person owns the cars, house, etc and is not on a lease. Add to that the retiring fund, to reach a million after some time working, is not a impossible task. If that person has a successful and growing  business (a mom a pop shop could could count if its big), instead of a job, that million doesn’t look such a big deal, right? Well that depends on the opportunities and background of every individual, but there are more millionaires out there than what we think.

Source

Most people that own a business and fit this mold I just described might be hard working families, couples or individuals, sure they don’t have the life a Jack Ma, Bill Gates or Pierre Omidyar, but surely that live a good life. And it might be better because they are not always expected to pay the bill. The three mentioned are high profile people, but when the network of people that you know, know you have money, things might get tough.

If you or anybody that you know is a millionaire and unhappy, it might be time to rethink your way a of life and this leads to the second thing I remember when reading the comment: as somebody once told me, “happiness is a journey.. not a destination”. As pointed out in the article/Q&A called the “The Entrepreneurship Myth”:

You do point to this data that people are so much happier working for themselves that they’d need to earn 2.5 times as much working for someone else to be as happy. If that’s the case, then despite the personal financial risks they take on, is there anything wrong with that?

It makes a lot of sense if people say, “You know what? I’m going to earn less money running my own business, but I really don’t like to work for other people, and that’s why I’m doing it. It’s making me happier and I really don’t care.” I think that’s great. The part of it that becomes a problem is when people just won’t admit the reality that it may make them happy and they’re doing it because they want to be independent, [but] then they delude themselves into believing that also it’s financially better.

Having a million or none will not make you happy, but I bet that there are people that went from nothing to a million and are “smart” enough to not get caught up, look back, will be happy (at least for a moment) and continue living. Working hard, but having the presence of mind to take your time to enjoy other things, will give you those glimpses of happiness that will continue to fuel your tank in these ride called life. It all depends on who you are and if you are up to having a boss or being the boss. Maybe getting to the first million or having your business survive for more than 5 years is what made you happy, but somewhere in the road, we lose perception of what really counts and the value of the intangibles (health, friends, family, peace of mind, etc.) And there is where the questions and dilemmas start: can money buys happiness?, how happy I am?, what makes me happy?, how come I’m not happy, I have everything but I feel so empty, etc.

Source

What if you already have enough millions or your business is so good that it will make a lot in the upcoming years? Well, you could use that money and invested in a VC fund. This VC fund will not be like those that funded those high or green tech startups, but how about investing  people that don’t have much in life. Its high risk, may take while, but the return of investment might be greater any hot startup. Some people called micro finance, other social entrepreneurship, but at the end of the day these tags are just part of the trend. If you think about it is a investment, since you are providing financial resources, which you expect back and may not get back (part of the risk). In addition the return of investment is not money, but social impact, satisfaction given from helping people and providing the resources (and that is life) you had and they didn’t. It’s not a game of feeling guilty or just giving out money, for it to really work it should be treated like any investment. Why? Well, so the money doesn’t go to waste and when people are given things, they don’t work as much as when they have to earn it and pay it back.

Investing on people business and providing them with this “loans”, is not the only way to go. How about setting up computer labs at public schools for kids in developing countries. This again is not charity, because you are investing on this kids, to learn to use a great tool (computer & Internet) and then they can because part of the work force or an entrepreneur that you might later invest on. In the other hand you hare also investing in the future of your kids, since the more educated people we have in the present, the better the future will look.

You don’t need to develop big initiatives like One Laptop per Child, that at the end are just big marketing campaigns to make companies look good. Its not needed, especially today with all this low cost portable laptops like the Asus Eee PC. They are good enough for Internet and office apps, and they are cheap and can resist a lot of punishment (look at the video bellow).

Even if the places where the kids live don’t have electricity to charge the laptop, that is not a problem but a opportunity to provide the community with something else: source of electricity. The community can use it for their needs and to enhanced the business.

At the end of the day is all about the perspective and how we look at life and that will determine if we get caught up in things that are just not worth it. Of course like most things that are not done: is easier said than done. Which reminds me that is time to figure out how to walk the walk.