This is seriously so exciting! The One Laptop Per Child program is finally offering their amazing little XO laptops to the rest of the world, and doing so with a great program.

For those of you behind the curve, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has created a laptop designed specifically for children in developing countries. (Full disclosure: Google is a sponsor of the OLPC project.)

I've had the opportunity to play with one of these laptops, and they're really awesome! Features include:

• A special mode for outdoors use which outshines every other laptop out there in terms of readability outdoors with the sun shining on it.
• Amazing resolution (it really looks like you're reading a physical book.)
• Very lightweight
• Extremely low power consumption
• Wireless connectivity (including a peer-to-peer mesh network)
• Water-resistant keyboard
• Both a touchpad (mouse) and a handwriting-input
• Built-in colour camera
• Built-in microphone
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Three external USB 2.0 ports

There's already widespread commitment from governments around the world. For example, Libya has committed to giving laptops to all of its 1.2 million school children. Other participating countries include Argentina, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Egypt, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Tunisia, Uruguay and more.

Seriously when I first played with one of these laptops, my first thought was "man, I'd love one of these for myself." Well now you can own one. OLPC's new "Give 1 Get 1" program is simple: for $399 OLPC sends you one laptop and sends another to a child in a developing country. Brilliant!

The laptop has a web browser, instant messaging client, email, word processer, a music sequencer, a copy of all of wikipedia, and more. What a great gift for a child you care about (or yourself!) Not only is it extremely affordable considering what you're getting, but you're also helping a child in another part of the world.

Seriously consider this option when you're thinking about people in your life this gift-giving season. And if you want more information, there are many videos about the project on the OLPC website.

Click on the image above. You know you want to. Don't you at least wanna try the first level to see what it's like? See how easy that was? Don't you want to see if it gets harder?

The massively multiplayer online game King of the World has banned all accounts of males who play female characters. Anyone who plays a female character has to now validate their gender via webcam.

So hold on a second. Let me get this straight...

	pretending to be		is totally fine and normal.
Gamer guy		a freakin' elf

	pretending to be		is totally fine and normal.
Gamer guy		a powerful mage

	pretending to be		is disgusting and forbidden.
Gamer guy		Gamer girl

How does this make sense to them? Thoughts?

This weekend I'm packing up my airport-security-safe luggage (read: no liquids, no pointy things, no dangerous novels, etc.) and heading out on a two-week whirlwind trip to China, Korea and Japan.

I'm excited to be able to visit the Google offices in these locations, but I'm also super excited to be able to go exploring during evenings and weekends.

So I'm either gonna be posting lots of fun stories and photos and anecdotes, or having too much fun to care about posting and you'll hear nothing. FYI. :)

(Aside: You know the term "bio break"? As in "could we pull in at the next gas station, I need a bio break!" That phrase causes me to giggle whenever, thereafter, I hear someone say "we need a bio from you". Heh heh heh. .... Look, I didn't say that I was the pinnacle of mature humour.)

O'Reilly's been running a feature this month called Women in Technology containing stories and experiences from various women who are involved in the technology sector.

As the editor, Tatiana Apandi, says: "My hope is that the myriad of experiences you read about here will showcase how valuable it is to hear from different women at all stages of their careers and lives. Whether you believe that there is gender inequality within the tech community that we should all work to improve or if you think that there are no issues at all, one underlying truth is that we should support each other as individuals."

I was asked to contribute my own tale, so you'll be able to find it there next to dozens of inspiring stories that make me feel honoured to be in such an impressive lineup.

The whole thing will be packaged and sold as a book with all proceeds going to a scholarship program run by The Alliance of Technology & Women. Totally worth a read.

Hello from Japan! We arrived in Tokyo last night barely awake enough to hug Joi hello at the airport. Wait, last night? Tonight? The days all of a sudden became blurry.

Anyway, once Joi started taking us around, we both woke up a bunch. We checked into the hotel and then had dinner at Inakaya in Roppongi.

Joi had to do all the ordering, as the two of us stared on helplessly, wondering how the hell we're going to eat on the rest of the trip without picking up at least a few words in Japanese.

The restaurant was amazing and a great way to start the trip. Not only tasty food, but also entertainment as the chefs would yell (literally) orders to each other and then all repeat it. Whenever someone entered or left, or the food was ready, the shouting ceremony began again.

When your order is ready they put it on the end of a big paddle stick and then pass it over all the food in front of you. This sounds like an easy feat but when you think through the physics a bit, you realize that on the end of a huge paddle stick, even the lightest dish is going to start getting really heavy.

After getting our fill here, we proceeded to visit a ramen bar to get even more food. I have a feeling that eating in moderation is going to be a significant problem on this trip. ;)

It was bedtime soon thereafter. After all, it was far past morning the next day in our heads. Woke up at 5 am (local time) the next morning and got to watch the lights of the city slowly blink off as the sun rose.

Hard life, eh? Not quite.