I arrived in front of kid nº1's Magalhães the other day like an amoeba with fingers.  

I'd had a hard week, exhausted, head full of stuff of many colours.  

I was faced (if an amoeba had a face) with a tiny screen, a tiny keyboard and the choice between booting into Windows XP or Linux. I despise XP (not because I'm one of those irritating and irrational MS haters, but because it's shite) and have never used Linux apart from fleetingly so just chose the first option, bleurgh XP.  

It was all down hill from there.  Not because it's difficult, but because it's all over the place, plus it's all in Portuguese, and the translations for things techie are so inconsistent.  The thing could connect to the internet, but was so locked down with parental controls with no password (I finally had to go on the net to find a password to unlock the thing to get it onto the net) that it allowed about three of the most boring sites imaginable and the software that was mostly alien to me, not normally a problem, but my amoebic brain had had enough for the week.  

The parental control program in the Windows side was missing one of its exe files so even when I got the password I couldn't PUT it anywhere.  I was stuck.  

A couple of days later, I came back to it, and got it all sorted out for the sprog.  

But, really the thing is a disgrace.  The thing is supposed to be an introduction to many kids to the world of info technology, and an awful lot of households it could be the first and only computer.  I know my way round computers pretty well and when my amoeba like state had passed, it was a doddle, but in my amoeba like state I understood how a complete newb to these things must feel.  

And less than newbs, the bog standard users, i.e. the types who only use a computer at work for minesweeper and instant messaging and those stupid goddam emails people are always sending me, i.e. the types who claim they are tech literate until you realise they really aren't, will be completely stumped.   

In this sense, the Magalhães is a HUGE let down and almost a waste of time (a normal child will be able to use it as an educational games console).  Someone should be ashamed of themselves, for this is not a machine that can be just sent home, switched on and be useful.  A HUGE opportunity wasted.