newly ancient

The OLPC give one, get one program is starting today. For the next 12 days, if you buy an XO laptop for $399, you will get one sent to you and and one sent to a child in a developing nation. Here’s the official release:

Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).

I highly recommend that anyone with a young child in their life takes advantage of this. Not only will you introduce your son (or daughter, or nephew, or neice) to the joys of the web, you will also supporting a worthy cause and donating to developing nations. Plus, it is just pure XOXO. Think about it: for $399, you are helping to raise two digital citizens. Two more voices in our ever expanding global network. Plus, you get 1 year of free T-Mobile wifi:

T-Mobile USA is proud to offer you one-year complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot in recognition of your support for the Give One Get One program. As you help children in developing countries stay connected, educated, and enlightened - T-Mobile wants to support you by keeping you connected to those who matter most to you.

Since I already have a beautiful MacBook Pro I don’t plan to get an XOXO laptop. These laptops need not be limited to children. After all, the operating system is based upon Linux which is itself a very robust and efficient system. Plenty of people fully fluent in computing are ordering their own XO laptop. (After all, it really is a steal :P) My dad plans to order one (two?) of his own. Sylvia Martinez, Scott Swanson and Andy Schmitz already have. Are you going to order one? It’d certainly be a great complement to your desktop if you don’t have another laptop already.

As I write this post, I am sitting back on my comfortable red couch. By that statement, I have revealed to you that I now own a laptop - specifically a MacBook Pro; and I’m loving it. This purchase was a first for me in many ways. For one, it was my first laptop. As well, it was my first Mac. Well, I am certainly glad I took the dive. First, the specs.

Processor

2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed

Display

15.4-inch (diagonal), 1440 by 900 resolution, TFT widescreen

RAM

2GB (two SO-DIMMs) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-5300)

Graphics

NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB of GDDR3 SDRAM and dual-link DVI

Hard Drive

160GB Serial ATA; 5400 rpm

Weight/Thickness

5.4 pounds, 1.0 inch thick

Sounds pretty sweet, eh? Well… it certainly is - especially for $2,299 after my student discount. (I also got a free printer and iPod Nano… which I promptly sold to bring the total cost down to $2,000) This was probably the best purchase I ever made. Getting my Mac was more than just getting a new computer - it was getting a new way of life. Previously, I was rooted to my huge Linux box in a dark corner of the house. Now I am free to roam wherever - the couch, school, outside, anywhere with wifi. In effect, this has turned computing from a solitary experience into a far more social one. But that’s just the cool part of all laptops… without the awesomeness of Apple.

You have to understand where I am coming from. I have never owned a Mac before - I’m the type who used to build huge Linux/Windows boxes and fix them into the early hours of the morning. It is often said that Macs are for inexperience users simply because they are so easy to use. While it is true that my Mac is far easier to use than my old PC, that doesn’t mean I don’t love it. While I may have the technical experience to hack my PC into doing what I want, I would rather spend the time designing and getting work done. Not only does my Mac allow me to do just that, it makes the entire process fun again.

Honestly, positive reviews are really hard to write. When you are mad about a product, it is really easy to put that anger into words. You are so mad that you want everyone else to share in your pain. Fortunately, I have absolutely nothing to complain about. Everything about my MacBook Pro is great - for school, for work, for play. Instead of going into extreme detail about all the great features - iSight, design, motion sensor, etc. - I will leave that to the many others who have done so and leave you with this single statement: I have not turned on my 4 gb of RAM, dual core beast of a desktop in over a week. My beautiful but powerful MacBook has held me captivated.

See the beauty get undressed on Flickr.