Another XO laptop is on the way ?!?

I checked my mail this morning... and I was floored to read this mail from OLPC:

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Your XO laptop is on its way.

We're happy to inform you that your XO laptop has shipped. In order to help you get the most out of your experience with the XO and One Laptop per Child (OLPC), here are some important links. Please save this email for reference.

To find out everything you need to know to get started with your XO laptop, please click here or visit www.laptopgiving.org/start.

Your order reference number: 700000xxxx

Please click here to track your order on our website.

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What's the problem? I got my XO laptop *2* months ago, and it arrived without fanfafe. No e-mail, no nothing. Now they're telling that it's on its way ?!?

I hide the details but the tracking number they supplied is invalid. I called my credit card company, I explained what is happening, and they assure me that there were no charge made.

I don't know what to think: Will I get another XO laptop, and this one for free ?!? Is it the e-mail I should have got last January? Your guess is as good as mine.

It seems it's total chaos at OLPC. Many complaints that the laptops still haven't shipped We're in March, for orders placed in November and December. What a waste of good will. Now they have plenty of pissed off people.

It makes me wondering that if they can't deliver laptops in the US and Canada, where we have top notch infrastructures... how do they manage to deliver laptops to third world countries, and to support their laptops? I'm scratching my head.

Clevergirl reported that Nicholas Negronpote is leaving OLPC. Probably for good reasons. I guess it's one thing to design a laptop (and the little XO is a marvel. I'd say this is text-book "rightsizing" and that thing is incredibly *rugged*!)... and it is another to operate a company.

Again from Clevergirl, if you're wondering what a $200 laptop looks like, and it is no-toy laptop, see the video here. Also, see the XO laptops in the field (limited closed-captioning).

Personally, I'd say it's an incredible laptop. VERY rugged hardware like I've rarely seen. It is the ideal companion to a traveler.

(I'm looking for external hardwares, like an ethernet to USB, because the access to the internet is just Wi-Fi. Also, I have to figure out how to copy files from a memory card to an external hard disk or memory key. Once these glitches solved, my fancy schmancy (and fragile) Vaio laptop will get pampered at home, while the XO will travel with me, and probably where few laptops I've been. :) )

Not bad for a $200 laptop, eh? :)

Cheers,

-E