One Laptop Per Child update: The "kill switch"

[thatcrazycajun]

Courtesy of SoftPedia.com, we have a report that those $100 laptop computers that Nick Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child project have begun distributing to kids in developing countries have one bit of standard equipment most laptops don't: a "kill switch" allowing them to be permanently disabled from OLPC HQ. The idea is to discourage theft by making the laptop useless to a thief (or anyone s/he might sell it to) once the loss is reported. Story appears here.