Dare on my $100 laptop skepticism:

Attitudes like this really, really irritate me. The same way that there are rich people and poor people in the United States, there are also parts of Africa that are less well off than others. It isn't all one freaking desert with bony kids surrounded by flies from South Africa to Algeria. For example, in Nigeria there are probably more cell phones per capita in the major cities than in most parts of the United States. The fact that some people get to use the latest iPods and iBooks in the U.S. doesn't mean there aren't homeless bums eating less than three square meals and sleeping on the streets in the same zip codes. Yet I don't see folks like James Robertson posting about how every homeless person has to be housed and every orphan found foster parents before we can enjoy iPods and laptop PCs.

Well, there's a huge hole in that last sentence - the people being targeted here mostly aren't supposed to be buying these - heck, if they were, this whole thing would be simpler. When people decide what to do with their own money, it's all good. Dare might want to look at the comments from Misbehaving.net - that speaks to my concern a lot more closely than Dare's bogus strawman. Not to mention that his "put your money where your mouth is" argument is nothing more than loudly shouting:

I disagree, so you should shut up now

I'll be blunt - that argument is beneath Dare, and I thought he could do better. In the parts of the world where people can get cell phones (and, where there's infrastructure for cell phones) - by all means, offer these for sale. My skepticism comes from a couple of sources:

• Lack of infrastructure - what about network access, and support in case of problems? Dare is questioning my motives instead of looking at my actual concerns. A large part of the marketing for these points to the hand crank power. I'm guessing that if there are no plugs, there's no network either.
• Heck, I'd guess that hand crank radios would be more useful for most of the people we are talking about here. Radio signals are already there, and access to timely news would be of great value - especially things like weather information. The "how do I use this" barrier is a lot lower as well.

What my concern boils down to is this - I'm guessing that a lot of these will be handed out, and will not be put to any productive use - due to infrastructure and support problems. Other things - clean water systems, hand crank radios, access to better medicines - could make a much bigger impact in short order - and wouldn't end up going unused.

You want to disagree with me? Fine - make an argument. Do better than telling me to shut up.