Let’s face it: technology changed your life and mine. Were it not for the power of computers, you wouldn’t be reading this nor would I be writing it. Hopefully, both of our lives have been enriched. I know that mine has: in the almost 5 years I’ve now spent blogging, and the 16+ years before that during which I owned a computer, I don’t think I’d be nearly as happy, intellectually fulfilled or world-curious as I now am.

I can remember the day I got my first computer, a big honkin’ thing that ran off dual 8 1/2 inch floppy disks, with no hard drive and only 64 k of memory. It was almost the size of my studio apartment’s mini-fridge, and it kept my place nice and warm… even in summertime. That didn’t stop me. Oh, no. I had a 300 baud modem and a handful of BBS telephone numbers, and after connecting with my first one I knew there was a big, wide world to explore.

Imagine, then, how the world will change once every child can be just as connected as we are. Once a little girl in Sacramento is able to go online to chat with her friend in Somalia to discover that, despite their different religions or cultures or skin color, they’ve got something in common: they’re still little girls whose hearts contain all the unblemished desire to Grow Up And Be Somebody.

Imagine if that pierced and tat-covered teenage boy living in Mission, Kansas finds out that he’s going through the same alienation as his counterpart in Makin, Kiribati. How much time and angst can be spared in their lives if they discover what we’ve already learned: that deep down, we are none of us that much different from each other, no matter how special our Mommies tell us we are?

Get them online, folks. That’s the best way to win hearts and minds. And right now you can make that happen for a child in developing nation while helping a child nearby out, too.

The One Laptop Per Child initiative has extended its offer to provide a free laptop for every one that you buy. These machines are utterly ingenious and designed to withstand all the grief that a child or a child’s climate can dish out. They have rubberized keyboards, amazing hinges which enable them to be converted from laptop to tablet to gaming pad and they’re Linux-based. Oh, and they’re only $400.

That’s right: from now until December 31 you can buy one laptop and give one at the same time for $400 (USD). Or just simply give for $200.

Want to bring peace to the earth and goodwill to mankind? Get the world online so we can all learn that geographical boundaries only matter to those who read maps and polls.

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