Last week saw yet another depressing announcement from the One Laptop Per Child project – more redundancies, further cutting back on the project's commitment to its free and open operating system, and a general scaling back and winding down of one of the most ambitious, inspiring projects of the past 10 years. More - Cory Doctorow: One Laptop Per Child - what went wrong?
Tuesday's edition of Chatterbox More - Chatterbox Tuesday
More - Nadine Stavonina de Montagnac: Autism: equality's last frontier
School inspectors yesterday dampened ministers' hopes that tens of thousands of students would soon be logging on to online classrooms. More - No escape from turning up to class
Home wind turbines are generating a fraction of the energy promised by manufacturers, and in some cases use more electricity than they make, a report warns today. The results of what is thought to be the most comprehensive study undertaken of the industry show the worst performers provided just 41 watt-hours a day - less than the energy needed for a conventional lightbulb for an hour, or even to power the turbine's own electronics. More - Many home turbines fall short of claims, warns study
Smarthouse reports: "Mobile phone company HTC is set to launch a brand new phone touch phone that will take on the Apple iPhone and the new Pre offering from Palm claims a senior executive of Telstra." Telstra staff say: More - HTC will take on both iPhone and Palm Pre
Anyone who searches for information on the web will land on MetaFilter eventually, probably without realising what it is. Nowadays, the web is designer driven, and priority is given to bold headlines, large photos, and illustrations. MetaFilter is the opposite: there are no pictures at all, and what might be headlines are in the same small print as the text. Here, it's the quality of the information that counts, not the quantity of the display. More - The shock of the old: MetaFilter may be just what you need
It's about time the Toyota Prius had some competition. Last night, Honda launched its much-anticipated Prius-killer at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit last night. The Insight, a petrol-electric hybrid that will go on sale next year, will be the company's first affordable hybrid for the mass market and a direct competitor for the Toyota Prius at a cost of less than $20,000 (£13,500). More - Can Honda's new Insight beat the success of Toyota's Prius
The unveiling of Peter Mandelson's avatar in Second Life is part of Labour's push to beat the Conservatives in the political use of new technology, but it also has a symbolic significance. Unlike the rest of Second Life, where people drop a decade or two from their looks or masquerade as animals, Peter Mandelson will actually look like Peter Mandelson. What you see is what you get. More - Peter Mandelson ushers in a virtual New Labour revolution
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