GADGET-O-RAMA: Little hippie kids need computers, too

So here's a pic of my godson, Gabe the Hippie. (He's the little one, not the tall one -- that would be his Turkish papa.)

Gabe's a rambunctious two-year-old. I get to see him in a month. Usually, I bring him some knickknack or whatnot. I think it's time he had a computer since he loves poking at his parents' PC (to their chagrin). Maybe I'll head over to Value Village and get him a Commodore 64. That should satiate his geek tendencies.

The C64 is a good, durable computer for a kid. No hard drives to mess up, no moving parts, and a keyboard that would probably survive a few spills onto the floor. Better yet, you can connect it to an average TV. For a few bucks more, I can probably find an old Atari joystick and a few cartridge games.

It's hard to imagine, but the C64 was once the world's most popular computer. In fact, I bet the number of C64s sold still outnumbers the number of PCs on the planet. If computer manufacturers could produce a similar computer (ie. an all-in-one, solid state, low power consumption PC) that hooked up to a regular TV and ran an operating system that was easy to use, it might end up being a better option than the OLPC and other supposedly low-cost notebooks for developing countries.

What most people need, whether they're in North America or in Cambodia, is a simple device to surf the internet, email, run Office-type applications, and use Skype (or some other chat program). Set a price for $50, include a cable to connect to a TV, and tell me hundreds of thousands of people around the world wouldn't want one (or two) for their home. You don't believe a useable $50 computer is possible? Let's look at some facts:

FACT #1: LCD screens are expensive. North Americans are switching from their old cathode-ray TVs to LCD/plasma ones. That means, in a year or so, we're going to have a glut of old TV sets clogging up our dumps. Most developing countries still use this type of television. Why offer them a laptop when they have half of a PC setup already in their homes? Better yet, we could donate our old sets to fill up their classrooms.

FACT #2: Flash memory is cheap and durable. The price of a 64MB USB thumb drive is so cheap, they now sell them as impulse buys at supermarkets. Kids in developing countries need storage for their homework, eBooks, and a few games. A typical Commodore 64 game like Karate Champ can fit in 64K. That's kilobytes.

FACT #3: Low-resolution screens require less powerful CPUs. I used to type up my homework on an Apple II. The resolution was 280 x 192. That's less than my iPhone. But it was possible to write up a report, work in a spreadsheet, and learn some BASIC. Better yet, that resolution looked fine on a TV. Let's not forget the Apple II ran on a 1 Mhz CPU. Hell, it even had a mouse-driven GUI at one point. 8-bit for the win.

FACT #4: Dial-up internet is more feasible than wireless. If you have a phoneline, you can get internet. It might not be a media-rich web experience, but if the point is communication, it'll work. Wireless internet ought to be an add-on, not a selling point.

UPDATE: I found that at least one company is producing a C64-like computer. Cybernet makes the All-in-One PC ZPC-9100, and at less than $700, it's way more expensive than the cheapo device I've suggested. But I've got to admit, with the exception of the DVD-drive, it looks close to what I pictured a modern C64 would look now.

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