I figured it might finally encourage me to learn Python, at the least. And it might help provide some kid out there the opportunity to see a world he/she might not otherwise experience, at best.
If you haven't yet heard of William Kamkwamba's Malawi Windmill Blog (hard to believe, with all the hype), it is inspirational:
http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/
There is a lot of great info out there, if you have web access (one of my favorite's is MIT's Open Courseware project)
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm
I'm hoping OLPC will help.
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On the OTHER hand, why didn't they just concentrate on getting out a cheap laptop, and not re-invent EVERYTHING, including all we have learned about designing user interfaces in the last 30 years? Desktops and file cabinets may not mean much to a third world kid, true, but it is still a great and time-proven why to organize vast amounts of complexity. This "journal" scheme sounds really screwball, to me.
Same goes with the security. "Passwords" don't mean anything to this audience, huh? Well, after half the third world goes down with a virus, I bet it's the first thing they invent.
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Anyway, it should be interesting. It is amazing it has gotten to this point, with Intel and Microsoft trying so hard to kill it.
tonyv