“Sorry kids, back to sticks and cholera.”

Cambridge, Massachusetts – The dream of the $100 laptop has faded fast with the rising costs of silicon and nickel parts causing an increase of $88. The soon to be released $188 “XO” laptop doesn’t seem to have the same appealing name. However, orders totaling up to 3 million units have been requested by various countries like Thailand, Brazil, and Libya. Tech nerds like Wayan Vota, the former director of the Geekcorps international tech-development organization and current editor of the OLPCNews blog had this to squeak:

Where does it end? It started out at $130, then it was $148, then it was $176, now it’s $188 — what’s next? $200? You have these governments who were looking at this original, fanciful $100-per-child figure, now we’re going up towards or maybe past $200.

$200 a laptop is still a pretty damn good price. I once got a laptop for $500 because it “fell off the back of a dell truck.” Nevertheless, this gives children the ability to really get hands on with their own personal computer. They could tinker with it and see the inner workings. Maybe kids could aspire to be someone as tech savvy as:

Nothing says artistic creativity and technological know-how like special bottles of wine!

I’ll have a soda, please!