User:Robby

Here I am, exploring the cutest little computer on the planet. I'm a journalism and media studies teacher at Radford University... a traditional newspaper reporter who stumbled in and out of anthropology, ethnomusicology and the computer industry, along the way discovering "hypertext" and online communities before the Web began... in the process developing a fascination for new technologies -- from my first 26-pound "portable" Osborne1 computer in 1982 to the xo!

Mine arrived well before Christmas. I've been watching the online docs,[1] wikis and forums[2] develop while I traveled with the XO from Virginia to New York City, Connecticut, Rhode Island, back to Virginia and as far south and west as Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis... making extensive use of T-Mobile at Starbucks.

Discoveries

1. An early version of the keyboard-shortcuts wiki page was wrong: alt-tab, not ctrl-tab, cycles among running programs (activities, in xo speak)
2. Related SAD discovery, two weeks later: My alt-key sticks at times, creating much randomness. See my symptoms and the official bug track discussion and RMA verdict.

Contributing to the community

I belatedly discovered a familiar face involved with OLPC and he pointed me to the Report project as a place I might be able to contribute.

I also suggested that the xo's library incorporate some journalism tutorials originally written for the MIT Media Lab's Silver Stringers project, and either my friend took my advice or I had missed the fact that they are already here: Learning_activities/Journalism

I've started a discussion of how they might be adapted for youngsters using the xo.

Secret identity

Finally, if you want to know more about who I am, Robby is the "inner child" of Bob, whose home page and blogs are a different shade of green, here:

• http://stepno.com -- my Home page includes an authentic Robby picture that documents the beginning of my interest in news reporting.
• http://boblog.blogspot.com
• http://couranteer

Humor?

XObservation: Was someone from MIT making an inside joke when they called xo programs "activities," including the UNIX terminal... which makes working directly in unix the "terminal activity"? It's actually the area where I'm learning the most from the XO, exploring its Linux understory to copy files and fix small problems like the system date.

Robby 16:45, 8 January 2008 (EST)