Ekindling/Lubang 100 XO Updates

OLPC Philippines grassroots group

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XO 1.5 Journey... to the Island of Lubang,Mindoro Philippines!

Behind the scenes, in getting the XO out.

Scene 1

Courtesy of Tesaa Yuvienco:

Good news kindlers!

1. As of 7.12pm of Oct 22, Mayor Johnny sent an SMS saying that the XOs are at his house in Sta Ana.

2. Rom will start mobilizing our student volunteers for the testing and configuration of the laptops. Hope they will be ready by Tue (Mon is a holiday due to barangay elections.) and are still in Mla (sembreak has started).

3. One NCC lab/room is available beginning Tue to house the XOs for one week. Beyond next week, there won't be any guaranteed room.

4. Joel and I are ready to pick up the XOs on Tue.

5. eKindling volunteer Ana B. is ready. Let us know who else will be available to help. NCC lab/room is only available for 4-5 days starting next week. You may give my mobile phone no 09178383892 to those who would like to help.

6. We might have to sponsor the meals of our student volunteers or perhaps ate Meg could ask ate Susan if she's still willing to do this.

7. Ry, pack your bags now!

8. Cherry, the XO release is so timely for your talk at OLPC summit. Break a leg!

Will keep you posted for more updates.

Cheers! Tessa

Scene II

Hi folks!

Day 1: 1.Picked up 21 boxes of XOs at Mayor J's house in Sta Ana at 7.30am. We had to open each box to check if all 100 were in. All told there are 100 and1 not dalmatians but XOs!

2. Headed straight to NCC. Since the head of security is newly appointed, he was hesitant to let us bring the units to the lab without logging each serial no. So my friend, (who happens to be a director now of cict training) was able to assure him that there was a letter given to Chairman Uy about this arrangement. Security officer finally gave us a go on the premise that we would give him all the serial nos that morning.

3. Initially, we thought of using Joel's bar code scanner app on his htc to scan the serial nos. But the app was so sensitive that it needed the perfect lighting to scan the bar automatically. After scanning two units for almost 15 minutes, we gave up. Next we tried taking a photo of the bar codes on each box, but the nos couldn't be read clearly. Finally we decided to do it manually and started typing each serial no. It was a lot faster because we only changed the last 3 characters. We were done by 12.30. Good thing the ever reliable Ana Banaag was around! We created a database for the XOs to log the machine name, serial no, update issues, etc.

4. After lunch, Joel left to go to Ateneo. So Ana had until 2pm to help me prep the first 2 units. We started naming the units LS1 (lubang student) and LS2. Ana and I were so grateful that Cherry was our online help desk. She also prepared the guide (hooray!) Then she started walking us through the process of updating. Unfortunately, the updating task was not successful due to intermittent internet connection. Ana had to leave then. So it was just Cherry and I trying to update the 2 units when 6 UP student volunteers (SVs) arrived.

5. The team lead, Kee, checked out the scope of the task. We started discussing the game plan for the next 3 days. He couldn't guarantee a 100% attendance of the same SVs. But he assured me that there would be SVs who would help out starting tom, Wed. I might have to pick them up at Comp Sci building to take them to NCC at 8am. My concern now, ate Meg is their meals. Would ate Susan be around this week to find out if she could sponsor their meals? Sandeep, would we still have funds left to buy their food? If not, we'll find ways to feed them.

6. Lastly, another good friend of ekindling from NCC, Bobby, has made arrangements for the extension of the room use til next week. Yey! That is, if we don't have enough SVs to finish the tasks til Fri.

So there you have it kindlers, a detailed account of Day 1 . Pictures to be posted soon.

Keep you posted

Scene III

Hi there!

The laptops have finally reached their final destination as of Oct 30. Hurrah!

Now, the next task is to register the units onto the server. The challenge is, there's only one Lloyd to do it. We are still waiting for the reply of the student volunteers. I have a feeling that they won't be available, so if you could suggest other volunteers who could help Lloyd. I texted him though saying that perhaps he could tap the support team since Ham mentioned that this task was part of the April training. The mayor will take care of the transpo, food, and accommodation of 2 volunteers. Mafe, pls let me know if you could recommend 2.

Tons of thanks to Cherry for helping us during the entire testing and configuration. Thanks to the 6 volunteers too and Sheli, their teacher, and Rom.

Cherry, I will follow up Ray about our corporate name, education kindling.

Let me know who else we could suggest to be invited to the event. I already told him about the 2 officers from NCC who have been helping us with all our endeavors.

Keep you posted.

Cheers, Tessa