I remember The Register, early attempt at blogging, surprisingly still going - Charlie Hoult
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OLPC turns cranky
ONE OF THE ORIGINAL specs for the OLPC called for it to be crank powered. No, I don't mean the hot air from that IT writer converted to electricity, but a real hand crank. One of them was shown off at CES.
There isn't much to say, it is bright green, has a USB plug that goes into the OLPC, a hand crank, and a clamp to lock it to a hard surface. In a nice emergent behavior scenario, the crank can also double as a convenient thumb-screw for the juntas that prowl the target markets for this device.
If OLPC bundles this with a bunch of adaptors for mainstream laptops, it could be quite a handy device to have around. With the TSAs war on electricity in full swing, one of these could make long distance travel tolerable again.
Just kidding, that will never happen, but OLPC should sell these to the mainstream market in a buy one give one type programme. They could quickly become the next iPlod earphone for the eco set. µ
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...a lawyer fest over all the poor kids getting repetitive stress injuries from cranking these things so mom and pop can view the latest porn flick.

We'll be sending disability money over there next!!

Or hear about kids sticking the USB connector in their little sibling's mouth to see if they can make them hop around while turning the crank.
...I'm cranking and cranking, but I cannot crank anymore!

Seriously though, isn't there another approach like a foot pedal solution? (I'm sure I recall from somewhere)

I wonder if you can rig that up to a EeePC or Everex CloudBook. (or what you UK folks call the Packard Bell Easynote XS).
Clever article, but bad idea. Considering that the OLPC machine runs at less than one tenth the power level of a typical laptop, it needs far less power to charge up its battery than a typical laptop does. So I doubt that the power output from this hand crank generator would be anywhere near enough to be very helpful when used with a typical laptop.

I believe the target was one minute of cranking runs the OLPC about 10 minutes. Given the more than 10 times power demand of a typical laptop, you'd get less than one minute of run time for each minute of cranking. Not very attractive, though I suppose in a true emergency, you'd take whatever you could get.