$100 laptop reinvents computer security Revolutionary project takes pioneering approach to protecting machines The $100 laptops planned for children around the world might turn out to be as revolutionary for their computer security measures as for their low-cost economics. October 9, 2006—The One Laptop Per Child project, a nonprofit initiative begun at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, aims to improve education by giving children bright-colored, hand-cranked, wireless-enabled portable computers. Governments are to buy the laptops--beginning in 2007 with up to 7 million machines in Thailand, Nigeria, Brazil, and Argentina--and hand them to kids for them to own. The machines have garnered the most attention, and some skepticism, for the design elements helping to keep their price low. Among other things, the computers will employ the free Linux operating system, flash memory instead of a hard drive, and a microprocessor that is slow by today's standards but requires minimal power. But programmers also have been taking advantage of the start-from-scratch nature of the project to design security protocols that they hope will greatly surpass those found in mass-market computers today. ... http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=6640 -- ________________________________________ http://users.ntua.gr/karounos/ - skype: karounos