Daily Archives: October 31, 2007

Hope for wrinklies

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Bobbie Johnson, writing in the Guardian…

Saga Zone, created by the insurance and holiday company, launches today with the aim of becoming the social website of choice for the over-50s. Users of Saga Zone must be over 50 – but once they have joined members can create their own profile pages, contact friends or join in online discussions.

The site, which has been running in trial mode for four months, has more than 13,000 users so far – and the company hopes this will increase dramatically now it is officially open. “Older people aren’t shy of using the internet – they have a verve for life that applies online as well as offline,” said Paul Green, a Saga spokesman. “Thirteen thousand is just a drop in the ocean – in theory the membership is practically limitless. Social networking isn’t going to be for everyone, but the feedback so far has knocked our socks off.”

Footnote: mature folks like me who use both a BlackBerry and an Apple Mac are now officially known as “blackberry and apple crumblies”.

Uruguay buys first ‘$100 laptops’

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Hooray! BBC NEWS report…

The first official order for the so-called “$100 laptop” has been placed by the government of Uruguay.

The South American country has bought 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12.

A further 300,000 may be purchased to provide a machine for every child in the country by 2009.

The order will be a boost for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation behind the project which has admitted difficulties getting concrete orders.

“I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a cheque written,” Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the organisation, recently told the New York Times.