The Children’s Machine (OLPC)

By Dual Core

On Zero One

Released on April 27, 2007

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I started as a concept, began as a dream

Brainchild of a genius media team

But it's not a game, there's no contestants

The ultimate investment in human resources

Humans need more of this, thoughts so generous

Combined with intelligence, the best set precident

Just a new era, the tide's now turning

Think about thinking, learn about learning

A global initiative in 2005

Right from the start I touched two million lives

A positive prospect, people are talking

Everybody's interested, the whole world's watching

Build a generation, construct a community

Increase capacity, improve opportunity

Worldwide enhancement with no exceptions

A hundred dollar laptop exceeding projections

Millions of children are born every year

How can we accommodate? It doesn't seem clear

Management, oversight, a must to achieve it

What about the hardware and software that's needed

An LCD you can read me through

And an AMD certified CPU

We can do it all, you and me prove

Add three more ports that are USB 2

Plus I'm on a diet for lower energy

Got an SD slot, and some flash memory

Keyboard, touchpad, now they gon' feel us

Microphone, camera, and stereo speakers

Still need an OS, let the best choose

Bring on the Hurd with Tux to the rescue

Put it all together, see that it's worth it

The box is complete, the packaging's perfect

Now I see criticism with creativity

They dispute intention, doubt feasibility

They laughed at the crank that gave the power levels

Cool, we improved and added a foot pedal

Now we're picking up speed moving overnight

2006 saw the first prototypes

The critics are scared so they hate what they fear

Ten million units by the fourth quarter here

That's ten million children in one year of movement

Talk about proof, that's what I call improvement

We're not finished, it's the start of a trend

The technology provided means to an end

Every night, day, morning, and afternoon

The world owes MIT a huge debt of gratitude

Thanks to the engineers holding down the fort

And every other company who showed their support