The project's name reflects how much faster Nigeria is able to deal with the problem now. Previously, officials would use cyber raids and petitions (seriously? Like a "Sign here if you want to see this guy busted for identity theft" petition?) to deal with the problem. Now they're implementing a drop-kick shut down procedure that, according to officials, could take up to 5,000 fraudulent emails offline per month.

The Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has been working closely with Microsoft to develop a solution that should be fully operational by 2010. [Ars Technica, image of Nigerian scammer via Fox News]

One of the parties named (there were four, including OLPC) in the suit originally was Alteq, who has since been dropped. Alteq is Intel's Nigerian partner, and Intel, if you recall, is marketing the OLPC competitor, the Classmate. Here's what Groklaw says:

Not to be too cynical or anything, but if by any chance the roadblock of this case miraculously clears up in a few months, around the time the OLPC's with Intel chips are ready to roll into Nigeria, or some Nigerian ripoff of the OLPC is suddenly available for purchase, let's just say my FUD/bogo-litigation meter is going to start to ring off the hook.

Either way, this isn't good news for OLPC, since their lawyers now have quite the mess to slog through, though we expect they'll be responding soon, since all of this took place in court without them, making this looking even more on the level. [Groklaw via Slashdot]

The 12-meter-long aircraft, which has never flown above a height of seven feet, is powered by a secondhand 133 horsepower engine from a Honda Civic. In the basic cockpit there are two Toyota car seats, with a couple more in the cabin behind. Controls are simple, with an ignition button, an accelerator lever to control vertical thrust and a joystick that provides balance and bearing. A camera beneath the chopper connected to a small screen on the dash gives the pilot ground vision, and he communicates via a small transmitter.

Mubarak says he learned the basics of helicopter flying through the internet after he decided it would be easier to build a chopper than a car. Flying his creation is easy, he claims. "You start it, allow it to run for a minute or two and you then shift the accelerator forward and the propeller on top begins to spin," he explains. "The further you shift the accelerator the faster it goes and once you reach 300 rpm you press the joystick and it takes off."

Undeterred that his home-made transporter, which lives in a hangar on campus, lacks the gear to measure atmospheric pressure, altitude and humidity, Mubarak is working on a new machine which "will be a radical improvement on the first one in terms of sophistication and aesthetics."

A two-seater with the ability to fly at 15 feet for three hours at a time, Mubarak's new creation will be powered by a brand-new motor straight from Taiwan, normally found in motorbikes. [Yahoo! via The Raw Feed]

The Nigerian government initially denied the Microsoft kingpin's application on the premise that they required proof he would not reside in Nigeria indefinitely, causing a strain on social services and a general nuisance for immigration. This leads us to a very pertinent question; WTF? Sure, things were OK once Bill managed to prove his economic status, but Nigerian government officials, seriously, WTF?

Well, there go my holiday plans down the pan; if Bill has problems getting access to Nigeria, I've got no chance. No, not even with a Gizmodo email account as collateral—shocking. [Uncommon Business]

He goes on to say: "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this." Harsh words, as Nigeria probably doesn't like being called a minor country.

Although Nigeria ordered 1 million, they won't be getting their shipments until other countries jump in and push the total order number up around 5 or 10 million units. – Jason Chen

India rejects One Laptop per Child [The Register - Thanks Manu!]

The box, developed by the Nigerian Fantsuam Foundation, saves all that energy by using a 1GB flash drive for storage instead of a spinning hard disk, and it has an energy-efficient ARM processor. Oddly enough, there's the same amount of RAM as there is storage, 1GB, and it has a 14.1-inch LCD screen.

With just a gigabyte of storage, that won't need to be a color screen, because there won't be any room for graphics. All those multi-million-dollar giveaway e-mails are mostly text anyway, and we're thinking these computers might ship with the caps lock in the permanent On position. Those scams better be successful, too, because the thing costs $1200. That's a far cry from Nicholas Negroponte's $130 PC due next April. – Charlie White

Solo Computer runs on 8.5 Watts of power [Tech Ticker]