The brainchild of the MIT Media Lab, the so-called $100 laptop wasn’t quite the hit its makers thought it would be in Southern Hemisphere countries, so One Laptop per Child created an offer in which those with the bucks could make a $399 donation — and one laptop would be donated to a kid somewhere in a poor country and one would be sent to the donor. Which is how on Christmas Eve at around 4 p.m. I heard a thud outside my door and opened it to find this:

There has been a lot of criticism of this project: The money could have gone for library books instead; the model is too American; the machines are overpriced as the Indians say they can create a $10 laptop. Nigeria ordered a million, then decided to reassess the deal.

I’ve said all along that the computers wouldn’t end up with poor kids because Westerners would scarf them up. I guess I proved my own point here.