It's not the worst way to raise funds; there's been enough curiosity raised that they should get several takers on that offer (I know I'll participate when I ge

It's not the worst way to raise funds; there's been enough curiosity raised that they should get several takers on that offer (I know I'll participate when I get the chance in November). It's also interesting why they scrapped the "buy one / donate one" idea in the first place; according to this NYT article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24laptop.html http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/worldbusiness/24l...): Staff members of the laptop project were concerned that American children might try the pared-down machines and find them lacking compared to their Apple, Hewlett-Packard or Dell laptops. Then, in this era of immediate global communications, they might post their criticisms on Web sites and blogs read around the world, damaging the reputation of the XO Laptop, the project staff worried. Strange, because so many of the initial reviews were overwhelmingly positive. Also, it contradicts the official line given in February, which was "they want to focus the production output to kids who need them".