$100 Laptops: ultra secure
p2pnet.net News:- The low-tech, high-tech MIT One Laptop Per Child project has already left Intel and Bill and the Boyz in the dust – it’ll be AMD-powered and running Linux instead of Windows – and now there’s bad news for the likes of McAfee and Symantec, who might have seen the computers as a means of introducing product into near virgin territories.
The laptops are low-tech because they use much slower, but more energy efficient, microprocessors than are the norm today, but they’re high-tech in the sense they use flash memory instead of a hard drive, and they’re Wi-Fi friendly.
And although the price has risen from $100 to $138, that’s still almost unbelievably inexpensive, especially considering the fact security will be leading edge.
Now, programmers are designing security protocols, “they hope will greatly surpass those found in mass-market computers today” and already, “they believe the security setup could make it unnecessary for the laptops to have anti-virus software,” says The Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
The laptops will force any application to run in “a walled garden” and limit the files it can access, the story has software architect Ivan Krstic saying. “Even if the security were to fail, Krstic believes a specialized encryption technology will prevent the BIOS – the software that runs a computer when it is initially turned on – from being overwritten,” says the story. “That means the PC could not be rendered unable to boot up.”
A “particularly thorny” potential problem is the laptops can communicate with one another in a “mesh” network, sharing data and programming code, says story, going on:
“A computing Web site reported this week that Krstic had described that setup to a security conference as ‘very scary.’ But he told the Associated Press the comment was taken out of context. ‘We have code-sharing in the machines, which is really scary if we were not paying attention to it, he said. But we think we have solutions to all of these problems’.”
Meanwhile, security measures can be turned off, says The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, because a ccording to Walter Bender, a co-founder of MIT’s Media Lab who’s overseeing software and content, a major principle is that children should be able to tinker with the laptops and learn how they work.
But, “To protect against that leading to disaster, the laptops will automatically back up their data up on a server whenever the machines get in wireless range of the children’s school,” adds the story.
“If a child manages to lose data, the files can be restored by bringing the laptop within wireless range of the server.”
DesktopLinux has a spec breakdown:
- Processor — AMD Geode GX2-500@1.0W clocked at 366MHz
- Memory — 128MB of DRAM
- Storage — no hard drive; instead, the unit will have 512MB of internal nonvolatile “flash memory,” used for programs and data storage
- Display — 7.5-inch “dual-mode” 1200 x 900 pixel display
- o Mono display: High-resolution, reflective monochrome mode
- o Color display: Standard-resolution, quincunx-sampled, transmissive color mode
- Expansion — three USB 2.0 ports
- Wireless networking — built-in 802.11b/g WiFi
- Power supply — built-in rechargeable battery back with wind-up charger
- System software:
- o OS — a version of Fedora Core Linux is available for testing, but Fedora is not necessarily the shipped OS
- o User interface — Sugar, “a custom built interface designed for the kids”
- o Boot environment — LinuxBIOS
Stay tuned.
Also See:
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer – Google seeks rivals’ data for lawsuit over libraries, October 5, 2006
DesktopLinux – The “One Laptop Per Child” project, August 3, 2006
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October 15th, 2006 at 3:31 pm
I would love to put windows lite xp on these machines and I could have a great machine tweaked and cheap!!