It’s a cutthroat practice to sell something at a low price only because you are trying to drive the other guy out of business. If you’re selling pork bellies or steel, fine, that’s capitalism. But this OLPC project is not about profit, and in my opinion, Bill Gates and his company and everyone who works there should be ashamed of themselves.

The sleaziest part: Who is the stupidest person about technology at the highest level of government? Pick anyone involved at the national level in making the decision to buy laptops for the schoolkids. I don’t just mean in Liberia, for example — the U.S. government, or any other government you’d like to choose.

So, big ol’ Microsoft waltzes in and says, “Oh, it would be so sad if your little children had that XO computer instead of ours, with the big INTEL INSIDE sticker right here on the top!” And what does the Education Minister say? “Yes, please, Mr. Gates. Please shaft us horribly right now so we’re not ashamed of failing to have a brand name known around the world for slow, bloated, inefficient software that is very, very expensive!”

Critics are also missing that there are incredible learning opportunities for people, and especially children with their curiosity, by just playing and tinkering around with a device. A computer in a child’s hands is a powerful thing.

Do people think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates learned what they knew from classrooms? Of course not. They tinkered, played and used that knowledge to change the world. Many people in the Web and computer industry learned their skills long before they ever received formal training in their field, and many don’t even have any formal training.

I think a lot of people, especially older people, would be shocked at how much children can learn on their own. I’ve learned so much in my life by just being curious, and without a computer most of that curiosity would have gone unfulfilled.

True, the people in these countries do need other resources, but as the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”