Talk:Main Page 1

Splitted second part of <-> Talk:Main_Page

OLPC/Curriki in Mexico

In our school, EGAP [ http://cmpublish.itesm.mx/wps/portal/egap ], we have been thinking about how we can integrate Mexico in the OLPC project. This letter presents to you our proposal, which is open to changes according to your suggestions.We are a multidisciplinary group of students (bios in attached document) who want to generate content for the XO in Spanish. After doing web based research we found Curriki as the best option to introduce us in the production of educational content with open source standards. Thus, we want to generate content that serves both Curriki’s and OLPC’s priorities.

Our project is “Geomapping in Americas’Elementary Schools” which involves creating an interactive map of the Americas with geographical and sociological information that would help teachers in social science courses for children between 9 and 10 years old. The map will consist of two layers, one with graphical content and the other with language. Thus although the project will be in Spanish it can be easily adapted to other languages. This map will have images, colors and designs according to every country, as well as specific elements like flags, structure and other basic information. We are going to use Flash as a graphical base for the project. Our project will have to day as deadlines; first, for the information content, we will have the text and class contents (20 lessons) in a publishable format by October 26. The graphical part of the project, maps and design, will be finish by November 15.

In order to construct the map, we will research geography education in 4th and 5th grade in Latin America, U.S. and Canada, text books, remarkable research and interview geography teachers.

It is important to highlight that we already contacted the offices of the PHD and the Master program in education in our university this to get feedback and permanent reviews of the pedagogical and instructional design of the content. Also, we will prepare lesson plans on geography which we will link to the map. Finally, we will make copies of the product for elementary schools in our city, in order to have monitoring capacity.

We look forward to hearing from you and will wait for your response so that we can incorporate any changes and suggestion you may have.

Best Wishes

Fernando Rojas Andrews MSC Candidate in International Law A00881041@itesm.mx EGAP Building, Sixth Floor.ZIP 66269 +(5281)86258366

Bios

Dante Sanchez

He was awarded in 2003 with the State Youth Leadership Prize and Candidate to the National Award of Youth Leadership; studied a Master Degree in economics and public policy at the EGAP in Monterrey Mexico. Dante has work as a Civil servant, NGO's volunteer and assistant in educational institutions; also he has worked for the World Bank as a Development Marketplace Program Evaluator and collaborates in projects of Education Measuring for Developing Countries sponsored by the OECD. Specialized in regional development and education, has worked at the ITESM since 2005.

Fernando Rojas

He is a lawyer who studies the Master in International Law in EGAP. He also is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Master in Public Policy. He worked in consulting projects for the Mexican Education Minister and the UN. He is interested in Open Source, International Tax Law, Computer Law and Justice. Also he took a course of Information Technologies at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) and a course of American Law at the Law Center of Georgetown University.

Hector GHF

He has a young creative mind. He studied Marketing in Mexico at the prestigious School of Business of Tecnologico de Monterrey. He has worked for companies like Disney, Coca-Cola, and Kellogg supporting marketing strategies within; however he recently changed his administrative focus to a more creative approach working as an Assistant Producer in animated and live-action advertisement for international markets. He has worked as an independent illustrator for museums and children's books. Also, he freelances as a Graphic Designer when he has the chance. He has lived in Mexico, United States, and Argentina, this last being his current location.

Nestor Guerrero

He is a Mexican Master in Public Policy and Politics student in EGAP. He is a Bachelor in Computer Science Engineering of Tec de Monterrey. Actually he is half time working as Research Assistant in a Cathedra of Public Administration, Government and Citizens. His principal interest areas are electronic governance, open standards in public information, web services in public administrations, creating public value through information systems. He enjoys traveling and working with people from different countries.

Ricardo Martinez

He is an EGAP grad student in Public Administration, currently working as a Research Assistant. He did my major in Political Science and Public Administration in the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM). He has been working in Governance issues and in Public Security. Also he took the Information Technologies and Innovation in Government Executive Program at the Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) in summer 2007 where he heard about the OLPC program.

UPDATE - OLPC Mexico: Carlos Slim Buys 250,000 XO Laptops!

Carlos Slim, the richest guy in the world and head of Telmex, is spending 870 million on a health institute, telecenters and this includes 70 million for 250,000 XOs. Focus will be on Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl in Mexico State, and Tuxtla Gutieérrez in Chiapas.

A OLPC purchase by Carlos Slim is not surprising, Nicholas Negroponte has been touting a Slim subsidized OLPC Mexico for a while now. But the price that Carlos Slim is paying for XO laptops is - its nowhere near the "$100 laptop" goal. TechNewsWorld reports that Slim:

would devote about $70 million (51 million euros) this year to the low-cost laptop program. With an estimated cost of $250 (183 euros) to $300 (220 euros) per machine,

While that may be like water off a ducks back for a man estimate to be worth $53 billion, to achieve his promised 1 million XO computers in 2008, he would have to donate $300 million to One Laptop Per Child at $280 dollars per computer per child.

[ http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/mexico/olpc_mexico_carlos_slim_xo_laptops.html ]

Mini Documental sobre OLPC en Uruguay (15 mins)

Hola... les dejo un link a un mini documental sobre OLPC en Uruguay. Es un fragmento de un programa de TV. Y es un link público desde el sitio oficial de la productora que lo ha hecho. http://www.presidencia.gub.uy/_web/informe_semanal/20071206.htm El programa consta de 3 bloques, el bloque 3 es el que se refiere a OLPC. Así que solamente hacer click en el "Bloque 3, Video". Abrazo! Rafa XL, Spain.

OLPC درباره پروژه

خوشحالم که در این محیط به زبان فارسی برای هموطنانم و نیز کسانی که به زبان فارسی صحبت نموده و می نویسند درباره این پرژه بزرگ می نویسم.

build 653

The front page lists build 650 as the current stable release, but http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/official/ reads "The latest official signed build is 653." Whoever changes the official build there should also update the front page. LeeColleton 06:03, 10 January 2008 (EST)

Now the front page shows as build 653, but the data was not updated to 25-Dec-2008. Please update the date to match the build number. Greg Eakin 20:25, 12 January 2008 (PST)

The date of the build creation is 07-12-14. The release of the build to manufacturing (for clean installation) was shortly thereafter. We've done additional QA on the upgrade installation and have only recently confirmed its release. --Walter 07:33, 13 January 2008 (EST)

Canadian Order Received

Hi, Further to the announcement that Canadian orders were started January 9th, we received our XO box today, January 15th, in Ottawa, Ontario!

Same here on the 16th.

Have these successful shipments been given tracking information? or did the laptops just show up?

Just showed up on my porch. Seems to have been delivered by Fedex. With no signature required it could have just "walked away" before I got home and I'd have been none the wiser.

== Terminal Pasting Workaround== Katie 16:45, 7 February 2008 (EST) Thanks!

Hold Times For 1800 201 7144

I just read here that hold times are reduced. I just spent 2 hours and have not talked to a person. I guess hold times used to be counted in days. I was a second day order in the US and I am still waiting, with out any word from olpc.

Don't buy the hype. They haven't been reduced. I've spent about an hour and a half on the phone every time I've called, always to be told that no one knows anything, there's no one I can talk to that does, and there's nothing they can find out. This is an awful operation. -128.210.84.49 18:25, 16 January 2008 (EST)

Keep in mind we are a charity, and do not do shipping in-house. We don't manage the support lines. ffm 19:27, 16 January 2008 (EST)

Right, but you're still responsible for them. They're working on your behalf. As are the people in charge of all the shipping SNAFUs. And you are in charge of laptopgiving.org- so how about taking down the false shipping dates from the "tracking" function and issuing a big "Sorry we screwed this whole thing up so badly" apology? -Awexome 20:05, 16 January 2008 (EST)

Sorry, by we I mean I am not personally an employee of the project. I am just a volunteer. However, we are currently attempting to change the shipping dates, as we previously did not have the rights to do so. We apologize for the shipping delays, and are doing our best to expedite all orders, but we arn't selling you a product, we are giving you a gift in thanks for your donation. ffm 20:31, 16 January 2008 (EST)

See, it's these attempts to make people who waited patiently through two totally gonna arrive by this date dates feel bad for being irritated that make many of us even more irritated. Why end with "but we arn't [sic] selling you a product, we are giving you a gift in thanks for your donation" and detract from the semi-apology you just made? I appreciate the fact that you're a volunteer, but admit that OLPC and/or the contractors it is responsible for messed lots of orders up pretty badly and that we donors are justified in our frustrations. And then don't tack on a guilt trip to the end. It does nothing to make us feel better about the flawed process. -Awexome 20:39, 16 January 2008 (EST)

Well said! I just wrote and deleted a suggestion on what OLPC might say to the D1G1G0 "donors" because it was even too sarcastic for me, and I have a pretty high sarcasm tolerance.

I agree 100%. What is this you are giving me a gift crap. I am giving you a gift. $400 and some dollars. Which if you (and by you I mean the company that you voluntereed for who is in charge of delivering what they promised, which may have meant thinking the whole process through before going ahead with it.) and your company said give me $400 for a laptop for a child in a third world country. I would have said no! Not to be selfish, but I was enticed by the fact that not only could I receive (or possibly not receive) a laptop for both a kid in need, but also a Christmas Present (yes I said Christmas present) for my daughter, as well as a tax rebate. Hmmmmm! I haven't received any of that. Not even a tracking number, yet my order still seems to be in process. Oh yeah I left out the T-Mobile free for a year hot spot. Where is 60 minutes now with their great story!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah. One more thing. I am sure UPS or Fed Ex. is to blame for this. I bet they love you guys pushing this off on them, since they are so new in the shipping game.

Sever time

This wiki server looks to lose one day... Isn't it? -- LeeSI 23:57, 16 January 2008 (EST)

bad wiki!

moved comment to talk:wiki

My School Days Are Over

A suggestion for a short quip for presenters of OLPC for starters to set the mood of what it's all about.

A kid comes home after his first day at school and exclaims :

Mom, MY SCHOOLDAYS ARE OVER!

Why is that son dear, what happened?

Well, you know Mom, you spent a whole year teaching me:

How to crawl; How to sit; How to stay dry; How to sign you when I'm hungry;

And then another year:

How to walk; How to talk; How to behave; How to go potty; How to not cry so much;

And then another, a third year:

How to run: How to catch a ball; How to draw; How to hear stories; How to sing; ..

And then a fourth and fifth year:

Showing me all sorts of new things; Answering all my questions; ...

So, I get to school this morning and the first thing I hear is:

Sit down and Shut up. - My school days are over!

removed sections

I removed some sections while cleaning up the main page: one had already been moved to the FAQ, others were a bit redundant.

!---Moved to FAQ with link at top 
==Notes on G1G1 shipment==
During the reconciliation process of the “get” laptops shipped during Give One Get  
One, a number of unfulfilled order records were uncovered. The OLPC team has been 
working hard with our partners to resolve all open issues. We expect another ~5000 XO 
laptops will be shipped on Monday. The remaining orders pose an extra challenge as 
they either have incomplete or no shipping and contact information. If you have not 
yet received your XO laptop, you should be getting an individualized email that 
addresses your specific situation. If you are scheduled to receive your laptop next 
week, you will also be getting a follow-up email with tracking information. We'll be 
adding additional phone lines and shifting agents to reduce wait times. A further 
reconciliation of the data will be conducted this week, although hopeful, we can  
anticipate additional incomplete orders. Our apologies for these delays.
-->

!-- belongs in FAQ, not main page
== Focus ==

* Webpage corrections needed: requesting to update  OLPC's websites
* Help chat: community-driven support channel via web chat
* Update paths: how to update your XO
* Emulating the XO: how to try out XO-1 laptop on your PC
*  Education Portal: for educators
* Bulletin Board: any comment specific to this wiki.
-->

And what to do with this? it needs better placement: {{Latest Releases | firmware = inline | devel = inline | extra = inline}}

Pilot project in Karnataka (Bangalore)

Bangalore

ethernet connection might be useful on XO computer

I donated via the give one get one program. And I found that it is an amazing little device when I received mine. My only complaint so far except for the childsized keyboard is that I felt sort of ill after spending a few hours a day for a few days using it wirelessly. What I do in my home to avoid getting fried by wifi transmissions is to only use my wireless computers once in a while and most of the time I use my Imac and my desktop PC via superthin ethernet lines 50 feet each(that can fit under carpets). When I realized the wifi on the xo was making me temporarily ill I just stop using it and felt better within a day or two.

So I believe one way to protect children who have access to a router that they can plug into through their classrooms is to provide an ethernet plug-in site on the xo computer. In this way sensitive people like myself won't get ill doing wifi more than an hour or two a day. Learning is a wonderful thing but what good is it if you get leukemia or cancer by wifi-ing too much trying to learn.

No offense, but it is extremely unlikely that you are able to detect radio waves, let alone be harmed by them. It's much more likely that your temporary illness has another cause, such as working for several hours straight on a machine that is not designed for an adult, or even believing that wireless computers cause harm. Make no mistake: the human mind is incredibly powerful, and if you believe that something will make you feel nauseous, you will probably start feeling nauseous. The best way to determine if this is what is causing your discomfort is through a carefully controlled double-blind study. But here's a simpler test: When you turn off your wireless computers and start feeling better, is your wireless router still on? It continues to transmit the same wireless frequencies as the computers, even when the computers are off. So if you feel better while the router is still running, your discomfort is probably not related to the wifi. This goes double if you own a cellphone, which puts out even stronger radio signals than the router. (And if you are less comfortable around your router or cellphone after reading this, then the cause is almost certainly psychological.)

Finally, radio waves do not cause cancer. Sure, if you have a strong enough radio emission close enough, you can warm tissue, and if you warm tissue enough it can cause damage, but this is not the same as causing cancer. The same thing is true of hot baths; it's possible to make a bath so hot that it will kill you. But normal hot baths and normal consumer radio equipment do not heat tissue up enough to do damage (guess which one heats up tissue more?), and neither causes cancer. —Joe 00:56, 25 January 2008 (EST)

main page redesign?

What's the motivation behind the main page redesign? A new design that involves dynamic / daily-updated content would be nice, and there's some great brainstorming on design ideas elsewhere on the wiki, but we should keep news / new things at the top of the page. I'm also not a fan of this use of light blue for navigation bars everywhere down the page -- if we want to do that, they should be a diferent color (we've been reserving that color for the translation headers to date); and I regret using it myself for a single in-page nav earlier this month, in haste. At any rate, I cleaned up this version a bit rather than reverting, pending more discussion. --Sj leave me a message 01:21, 28 January 2008 (EST)

Mea Culpa I take the blame, and the light blue is now replaced with green. Same with translation, because the links css (A:link A:hover) are skin dependent. It was impossible to read. There was no talk of redesign on this page, only random thoughts about placement, so I had no way to know about any other organized effort. The page was impossible to read from an XO. Changes consisted of (1) removing distracting thumbs and boxes (2) changing colors (3) reordering sections (4) commenting out old links. Very little actual content was disturbed. Katie 07:57, 28 January 2008 (EST)

I just noticed, there is no link to Activities. I think it should be given visibility. HoboPrimate 08:21, 28 January 2008 (EST)

Doneded Katie 21:38, 29 January 2008 (EST)

XO Wins Prestigious wallpaper* Magazine Design Award

This year's awards include the "most life enhancing item" category. Have a closer look - http://www.wallpaper.com/technology/

Enders Game

Late last night while I was hammering away at the keyboard on my OLPC I began to think of a book I've read maybe a dozen times or more. Enders Game, has anyone else read it??? In the book (I won't spoil it to much) they all have 'desks' which are basically tablet pcs. The OLPC reminds me of them, I know they're not touch screen, but because soon every one will have a computer much like this one, or at least children will. And children will learn to program different 'activities' and hacks, that will exploit the system and send messages to users, or as other users, much like in the book. And in the book, it shows how the lessons from the 'desks' help them solve problems later in their lives. It's pretty cool, how quickly technology is moving :) Just wanted to share, qwerty

Thanks for the reminder :) --Sj talk 13:12, 3 February 2008 (EST)

And if you liked that, you'll love Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age. ;) —Joe 21:26, 4 February 2008 (EST)

How do I buy one of these?

I was woundering How I could buy one of these for my children? Could you please let me know...... Thank's Mandy Gonse —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.21.10.86 (talk) 08:01, February 5, 2008

You can't, at least not from OLPC. The laptops are for the developing world. However, you can buy them on ebay. ffm 12:00, 5 February 2008 (EST)

This ship is sinking, on Ebay these things are going for $500+ USED, so Mr. Negraponte is a terrible leader for this effort, he could have sold a boat load of these to 1st world and subsidized the 3rd world .. but he has screwed them both!

There is no way to buy them at $186/each .. this is pathetic outcome for a "not for profit" effort .. seems to be running fast to "for loss" enterprise.

Yes, if you buy them in bulk for the third world. Nothing you say is backed by facts... would be nice to see some. ffm 20:08, 8 February 2008 (EST)

RMS on OLPC

This news item from the OLPC Nepal blog just hit the front of Slashdot ... may be worthy to mention in news (or frontpage?). Also would be nice to hear any status updates on the subject of creating open Libertas firmware... ( http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/46 / Marvell microkernel )

• http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com/2008/02/richard-stallman-on-olpc-laptop.html

—Hobart 10:04, 6 February 2008 (EST)

xo children contributing to wiki

Are there any areas of this wiki where children who own xo laptops are actively contributing? If not, then something is wrong. I think as part of the children teaching themselves philosophy, this wiki needs to encourage the kids to be writing the faqs and user manuals to help other kids learn how to use their xos. Really, this wiki, or another, should be their wiki to build up and stretch the laptop as far as it will go. Us first worlders can participate and help but as much as possible stay out of the way. Is there any effort in place to direct xo kids to the wiki? Ike9898 21:17, 9 February 2008 (EST)

Yes, it is linked from the home page of the laptop. This wiki is for informational use, and since almost none of the children speak or write in english, it is unlikely that us english speakers will see most of their edits. ffm 22:20, 9 February 2008 (EST)

OK, considering that, is there yet any evidence of xo kids contributing to the wiki in other languages (I only speak English)? Ike9898 09:54, 11 February 2008 (EST)

Weather Station / Remote Measurement using USB Port on XO OLPC

Design of a USB port based data acquisition system for the OLPC project.

I work with single chip computers on a daily basis. These tiny $5 or less computers can be designed into simple circuits for monitoring weather sensors such as wind speed & direction indicators. There are two possible designs and I would be interested in receiving a few comments and votes on the best design. soutar@uvic.ca

Design One The microcontroller I am proposing is the Microchip PIC16F690 (cost = $1), which has a half dozen analog inputs as well as digital inputs for receiving weather sensor data. It would interface to a serial port which can easily be created on the XO computer by plugging in a cheap USB to RS-232 adaptor. I will be submitting the firmware code to burn into the chip, the circuit board parts and layout and the XO interface program to store the data.

Design Two This would use a slightly higher end chip from Microchip (PIC 18F4550) that will carry out USB communication directly. The USB data appears to the host XO computer be coming via RS-232 and thus software for Design One on the XO could talk to Design Two as well. The main difference in Design Two is simply that a USB to RS-232 adaptor is not required. However the chip and crystal required plus the extra cost of the microcontroller with USB included will increase the price for the components by about the same price over Design One as buying the USB to serial converter device.

For educational reasons Design One may be the better approach, since the code required for Design two is much greater and the tools required would not allow a student to carry out the design of a working model using only the XO computer.

All details would be available for building weather monitoring stations or other remote monitoring stations using the XO computer. It should be noted that the computer side programs will be built using the Python design language, which the children will be learning.

Submitted by Ian Soutar http://www.microsec.net

The Market is Ready

Hello everyone! OLPC needs to be made successful! Let's do it by allowing EVERYONE and not just third world government officials to get their hands on theses laptops! My hope is that some US company will make sell equivalent laptops for a dollar cheaper and then sell them on the free market to everybody...

Why not make OLPC a success? Sell them to everyone and have a donation page. I would certainly donate one if I could have one for myself. Anonymous comment

Some Troubling Issues

Is OLPC a technology project or an education project? Quite simply, its a technology project. Where is the educational part? How are kids going to learn from these computers and where is the foreign language support? Do you have a word-processor program? If not, the program will fall flat on its face.

Um, have you read this Wiki? Specifically the pages on Constructionism in Education, Collaborative discovery, Localization, Activities (including Write), and Content?--Mokurai 15:26, 25 February 2008 (EST)

Wiki translation

I can't find any information for people getting started on Wiki translations. It should either be on this page, or be linked from here. I also want to be able to link to it from Localization.

Not that it's difficult, but it would be helpful to have some advice on structure, for example. I see language links on Wiki pages in quite different formats, either in the languages, or using two-letter language codes. It would also be helpful to have a common template-based method for contacting people involved in translating Wiki pages to a particular language, something more systematic than reading all of the history pages for all of the different Wiki pages.--Mokurai 15:23, 25 February 2008 (EST)

The information on wiki translation is more clearly explained at Translations and via the translation side-nav... the top of the Localization page should include more detail as well. --Sj talk

OLPC for CreatingAndSharing Wealth

You wrote on the first page:

"Laptops are a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think."

Why not

"Laptops are ... a tool with which to think and earn income". 

Integrating the economic dimension into the OLPC is vital, especially for the developing world. Think "Wealth of knowledge and (resulting from that) resources for a decent life". Fridemar 18:59, 11 March 2008 (EDT)

The help:bulletin_board

For the short-term, I'm transcluding that material here, for more visibility: --Sj talk 15:30, 4 March 2008 (EST)

The OLPC Wiki Bulletin Board

• Any comment to this wiki.
• For posting a new one, please use the + tab at the top of this page or simply use this link, new topic
• If you want to reply to an comment, please click the edit tab of that section and put your comment prefixed ":" beneath the relevant one.
• Please always sign your comment by ~~~~.

---

subject

a comment example -- LeeSI 12:17, 16 January 2008 (EST)

a reply example -- LeeSI 00:50, 19 January 2008 (EST)

Searchability in the Wiki

I have had trouble using the Wiki search tool. For instance I get no results going after 'forth', 'Forth', or 'FORTH', even though there are pages with that word in their title.

Collapsing Table Rows

I've tried some collapsing table rows in the Sandbox#Collapsing_Table_Rows, but they seem to all have duplicate toggle switches. --FGrose 21:58, 24 February 2008 (EST)

Fixed. There was a duplicate copy of the code in MediaWiki:Common.js producing the second switch button. --FGrose 04:39, 11 November 2009 (UTC)

Search box in MonoBook skin

With the MonoBook skin the Google search field is not displayed; only the OLPC search field is available. --FGrose 00:04, 27 February 2008 (EST)

Wiki linked dates

The wiki date reformatting does not seem to be implemented:

Use links for dates, so everyone can set their own display order. Use Special:Preferences to change your own date display setting. July 20, 1969 , 20 July 1969 and 1969-07-20 will all appear as 20 July 1969 if you set your date display preference to 1 January 2001. --FGrose 17:03, 13 March 2008 (EDT)

MW:Manual:Dynamic_dates must not be enabled. --FGrose 01:05, 19 September 2009 (UTC)

two column translation

Because people contributing are either Spanish or English speakers, and both are welcome as well as those who are bilingual, the best format for the page I need would be two-column, because the notion of original vs translation will be very fluid, and it will help everybody if both versions are visible at the same time. I don't know how to do it, or even if it can be done painlessly my page of concern is http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Bolivia

I can be contacted at yamaplos at bolinux dot org

thank you

The translation template directions aren't very clear. I'm going to take it one or two steps forward in the process. That may help. Cjl 15:29, 16 April 2008 (EDT)

This page, Projects, has two sections that display side-by-side. I don't know how you might link one sentence or paragraph with another, but sufficient white space between sentences or paragraphs may suffice. --FGrose 21:19, 11 March 2009 (UTC)

help in translation from technotalk to normal?

on top of the wiki there is a translatebox to/from many languages

However, even tho i understand english, i am COMPLETELY lost in the jargon that is displayed and the institutional knowledge required to apply the content of the wiki. Is it me or is there another wiki that is geared to helping users get going? This OLPC wiki seems a great place for Tech people to help each other out but for example i am guided to fedora which mentions something like Is there a GUI for yum like synaptic....Hello?? Sorry???

I can find the topics that i want in the wiki, such as MP3 for being able to listen to a podcast... but then is stops...i see code (i think) but is there a helpdesk/volunteerservice for non-computerpeople somewhere who can take you through the steps, step by step?

I am not sure my message will hit home as the people involved with this wiki are probably part of the techtribe that i am not, but i feel like an alien who has just landed.

You might find the Glossary page helpful. The wiki is indeed used heavily by members of the "tech-tribe" to share in the distributed effort to improve the XO software, and tech-speak is the native language for discussing such matters. It is important to remember that the OLPC mission is not primarily aimed at helping G1G1 donors enhance/modify their laptops. Features like MP3 codecs (software to encode and decode MPEG-3 audio format) may not be considered a high priority for development or documentation when open-source audio formats like OGG are preferred for use in OLPC deployments, whereas in spite of it's popularity, MPEG-3 is mired in world-wide legal uncertainty.

Many members of the tech-tribe will play around with their XO's and port things like MP3 players on their own (and then hopefully document their efforts on the wiki, sometimes in obscure techy shorthand) for others to learn from, but this is not really part of OLPC's mission, so support for things like that is very much do-it-youself. Cjl 16:08, 18 May 2008 (EDT)

Ask_OLPC_a_Question_about_the_XO edit links "off"

I was just updating Ask_OLPC_a_Question_about_the_XO with infomation on a new buddy icon color reference chart but the Edit links did not correctly associate with the items they were displayed with. When I clicked on the item to edit, I got an edit tool with the contents of the previous item in it. I don't know enough about this wiki format to figure out how/why it was off. My browser was Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.14. Chris 12:31, 11 May 2008 (EDT)

Works for me. --Quozl 22:17, 21 August 2011 (UTC)

Power Diagram Page gives 500 Server Error

Hello,

The page XO Power Diagram is broken!

I removed the scaling directive from the image, and the page is no longer broken. When I try to set it back, the page breaks. --Quozl 22:15, 21 August 2011 (UTC)