Talk:Main Page: Difference between revisions

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Please add main page comments by clicking on the '+' link next to the word 'edit' above.
'''Somethings''' to consider before Editing this discusion page:
* This page is for the discussion of the Front page not for questions and comments about the OLPCs
* Please sign all comments. It makes figuring out whos saying what much easier.
* If you have questions about the OLPC go to the [[OLPC FAQ]], and if that doesn't answer your questions, see the [[Ask OLPC a Question]] page.


== LiveCD in Latest releases out of date ==
Recently this discussion page was hacked down to make it more manageable. see history if you feel like you're missing anything--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 20:30, 5 June 2006 (EDT)
Hello. In the "Latest Releases" box, the link to the LiveCD must be updated. It still refer to Build 385, while a recent version is available (ftp://rohrmoser-engineerinit is probably the most useful link over there, and at first this was going to be a gripe about it going away entirely, but then I realized someone had just mis-categorized it (IMHO). You can lose the [[Special:Random|Random Page]] link for all I care (as SJ has [http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=OLPC_talk:Vandalism&diff=127373&oldid=127372| observed] , it's more or less a ticket to an XO Korea page anyway. [[User:Cjl|Cjl]] 15:07, 24 April 2008 (EDT)
: I'm torn about where to put it. It is both about the project -- a way to see its current activity -- and of course about the wiki. It was moved because it was 'below the fold' on most monitors. I'm open to other suggeestions. And I still find randompages useful; olpc korea is only ~15% of the site :) --[[User:Sj|Sj]]&nbsp;[[User talk:Sj|<font style="color:#f70; font-size:70%">talk</font>]] 13:37, 4 May 2008 (EDT)
::There is enough real estate "below the fold" to have a second copy of the link under OLPC wiki. I'm not the only one asking. See [http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=MediaWiki_talk:Sidebar&diff=prev&oldid=127561| FGrose comment] elsewhwere. [[User:Cjl|Cjl]] 18:30, 4 May 2008 (EDT)


== Add Machine Translation ==


I would like to add the GoogleTrans-en template to the Main page. In spite of the worthy efforts of many translators in many languages, the number of edits to this page are more than any handful of humans can keep up with. By adding this template it will allow users the option of accessing a translation of this pageGoogleTranslation in one of 22 languages, they will have access to "good enough" translation of more current content. Furthermore, the Google translation frame will allow them to navigate the rest of the wiki from this entry point with translation turned on, if they so choose. See for example my User:page [[User:Cjl]], select any language and then navigate off the page by any of the links while the Google translation frame is active. It is also simple to dismiss the translation frame and switch back to the original verison of the page.
== FUNDING IDEA! ==


'''The argument against relying solely on human translations.''' I reviewed the other lang-xx versions of this page (certainly one of the most translated and updated pages) and recorded the most recent version number from the translation template. Clearly many of these are cases of the version number not being kept up to date (a challenge in itself), but on the other hand, history shows many of these pages have not had substantial revisions for months and months. No matter how much you might prefer a human translation, you must admit that at present, the community of lang-xx translators cannot keep pace with the larger community of lang-en editors. We should not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. [[User:Cjl|Cjl]] 22:41, 19 May 2008 (EDT)
I can speak for many by saying that the 100dollar project may be one of the most important of the 21st century to be undertaken.
<pre>
Version lang
130711 en
33113 ar
76798 bg
33477 de
75214 es
37382 fr
54129 it
99961 ko
68032 no
81739 pt
33477 ro
102681 ru
60725 zh
60725 zh-TW
</pre>
: please remind me why this is better than the translation links in the skin... placement? --[[User:Sj|Sj]]&nbsp;[[User talk:Sj|<font style="color:#f70; font-size:70%">talk</font>]] 06:37, 5 September 2008 (UTC)


== Moved comment from 200.101.90.215 ==
As far as funding goes, considering how economy works in industrial countries, i would say once the project is ready for roll out, you should seriously consider to make the laptop open to everyone through a webshop:


Looks horrible on IE6 * Please fix *
Promote different customary designs (limited editions - for psychological reasons), promote it together by putting emphasis on how to improve the world by making a small contribution and actually getting a quite usable AND very sturdy as well as ingenious laptop not to be seen elsewhere. Sell them for around 499$, and especially by advertising that by making this small contribution 4 laptops in a dev-country (which is not to be decided by the buyer for ethical reasons) and a small amount goes in to the olpc foundation. I know this writing comes over as very commanding, but please bear with me, run this with your fincaning advisors, economically this absolutely works and could make up well!
: noted! --[[User:Sj|Sj]]&nbsp;[[User talk:Sj|<font style="color:#f70; font-size:70%">talk</font>]]


== "How to update" links to old page! ==
I apologize if you already implemented this idea, and i did not read it. From a psychological standpoint this idea works well (when advertised according to the respective target groups) for families who want a sturdy laptop for their kid at the same time help out others, geeks, nerds, benefactors, etc. In other words there could easily be sold tens of thousands of laptops at such a price, while still fully maintaining NPO status. It would also increase at the same time the product recognition as well as sucess. [[User:193.170.48.34|193.170.48.34]] 01:36, 14 June 2006 (EDT)


"How to update" link on Main page (in box) links to a page saying there is a newer version of this page available (?!) [[Special:Contributions/76.243.220.21|76.243.220.21]] 02:11, 15 October 2008 (UTC)
:: 1) On a sidenote, others as i see had the same idea, however 499 is a very fair price, because it still has unique things to offer in contrast to competitors, and people just like to buy the idea of having done something nice for others. (See also marketing strategies of google).
2) I do not recommend making this acessible in first world countries to every school and so forth, unless people are equally poor, for the reasons of very different mentality and psychology that prevails in FWC (first world countries). Imagine the shoe scenario with rich kids wearing nikey`s and the poor one wearing second hand schoes, getting mocked and pushed around. Similar things are likely to start with things that kids are even more "proud" of in terms of fincanial value. If a kid gets mocked for using the laptop it may no longer use it, and even worse may develope an aversion against using PCs in the future. Don`t aproach this matter with LOGIC! but rather with human psychology/behavior.
[[User:193.170.48.34|193.170.48.34]] 01:50, 14 June 2006 (EDT)


== New main page design ==


We need a total redesign of the page. Mel and Seth and others have been saying the same thing for a while... so let's actually design a new model and implement it. I'd like to see something like [http://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portada the catalan wp main page] : with small colorful in-page tabs, a highly summarized and limited set of information in short paragraphs and bullet points, each linking to details elsewhere on the wiki, and a set of alternative page views including a static html view, for usability.


Each of the sections of the main page is another target for maintenance -- people interested in one area of news or another, in feeds or images or media, can keep that part of the main apge up to date without worrying about the currency of the rest of it; and without interlacing the overall page history with the section history. Now we only need to get the [[OLPC:Design gang|Design gang]] involved...[[Special:Contributions/24.61.14.99|24.61.14.99]] 06:15, 16 October 2008 (UTC)
== The Time for the OLPCWiki in Spanish has come... ==
: But the new main page design is barren and still static. It needs love! I still like the [[wikitravel:Main Page|wikitravel]] and [http://wikieducator.org wikieducator] homepages best... along with the [[w:ca:Main Page|catalan Wikipedia]]. --[[User:Sj|Sj]]&nbsp;[[User talk:Sj|<font style="color:#f70; font-size:70%">talk</font>]] 21:15, 21 December 2008 (UTC)


== Participation ==
Y aqui les dejo la primera... página...


The menu on the left should include a link to the Participate page. It could perhaps replace several of the more specific topics there.--[[User:Mokurai|Mokurai]] 19:37, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
Me permito someter a su consideración los siguientes artículos que describen un IMPORTANTE avance tecnológico, que ayudará a cerrar la brecha entre los países pobres y los desarrollados.


== UBUNTU ==
La adopción de estas computadoras y su distribución en México, permitirá:


How about, let us easily install ubuntu?
1.- Un salto cuántico en la calidad de la educación al permitir que cada niño, jóven y adulto posea su propia PC con acceso a Internet.


: I just wrote a [[Ubuntu Lucid on OLPC XO|howto for Ubuntu Lucid (10.04)]]. It is a slightly involved, but fairly straightforward process. :] It would be nice if someone figured out what changes the stock Ubuntu kernel needs in order to work. --[[User:Maxxflow|Maxxflow]] 19:57, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
2.- Permitirá desarrollar una política de NO EXPORTAR TRABAJADORES, sino IMPORTAR TRABAJOS, al facilitar la realización de trabajos virtuales desempeñados sobre la red.


== Concise mission improvement ==
3.- En Australia, donde las distancias entre los vecinos no se miden en metros, sino en HORAS DE VUELO, los médicos han desarrollado mecanismos para atender a sus pacientes a través de Internet, la aplicación de estas técnicas, podría poner a los médicos de México al alcance de toda la población rural y de pequeñas comunidades, sin necesidad de construir costosas clínicas y hospitales por todo el territorio nacional.


: How about, improving concise mission? As a member of the indigenous Australian community I am very offended with the amount of racism that is going on here.
4.- Permitirá a los jubilados y discapacitados trabajar desde sus casas, brindando consejos y ayuda a los ciudadanos para sus problemas de...
:: People may be blind to their own racism. Feel free to edit in non-racist language. --[[User:FGrose|FGrose]] 01:30, 2 November 2011 (UTC)
--------a) Tareas y Estudio,
--------b) Domésticos y familiares,
--------c) Emprendedores y Pequeños empresarios,
--------d) Tramites y apoyos Gubernamentales,
--------e) Asesoría en Turismo. y haciendo traducciones, apuntes y otros trabajos.
Todo con cargo a las tarjetas de todito.com de los que requieren ayuda, de lo cual un 15% o 30% queda al organizador y el resto (85% a 70%) se entrega al asesor o tutor.


== New discussions moved to the Cafe ==
5.- Desarrollar una industria propia de computadoras, mediante la contratación del la fabricación y ensamble de sus partes en México.
See [[OLPC:Cafe]] for more. --[[User:Sj|Sj]]&nbsp;[[User talk:Sj|<font style="color:#f70; font-size:70%">talk</font>]]


== Helping with this wiki ==
Gracias por su atención; agradeceré una respuesta franca, breve, clara y práctica a este mensaje, con su opinión y aportaciones, así como la justa oportunidad de participar en el desarrollo de los conceptos expuestos.


I would like to help out maintaining this wiki, however a lot of pages are locked from editing for me. Is there some solution for this? e.g. can somebody give me admin status? It is mostly wikilinks fixing what I want to do, but this wiki suffers from bad linking quite a lot.--[[User:Kozuch|Kozuch]] 21:03, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Atentamente,


Sounds great. You've made one edit already. Keep going. For things you can't edit, mention them to those who can. Once the trust develops, and the load increases, we will probably increase your access. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 22:11, 4 January 2011 (UTC)
Ing. Dagoberto Gmo. Flores Lozano
Consultor en Ing. Industrial y de Sistemas, desempleado.
Ex-Investigador y Profesor Universitario,
Ex-becario de la Fundación Ford, en Berkeley,
Aguascalientes, AGS. MEXICO
dagoflores@prodigy.net.mx


== Watchlist feeds ==


Hi there,


what about upgrading MediaWiki in order to have watchlists accessible via RSS/ATOM feeds as for instance Wikipedia or OSM Wiki have? It would help me a lot in watching this site.--[[User:Kozuch|Kozuch]] 08:57, 10 January 2011 (UTC)
:Any news here?--[[User:Kozuch|Kozuch]] 12:50, 24 September 2011 (UTC)
:: There are these links in Sidebar Toolbox section for the Related changes page, [http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&feed=rss&target=Talk%3AMain_Page RSS] and [http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Special:RecentChangesLinked&feed=atom&target=Talk%3AMain_Page atom],
:: and similar ones on the Recent changes page for the wiki (reach it from the Sidebar, About OLPC). --[[User:FGrose|FGrose]] 16:58, 25 September 2011 (UTC)


== German version ==
== Humbly Opine ==
Regarding the concern expressed by some colleagues that 3,000 laptops is less than a rain drop in an ocean, I would humbly opine that once we successfully deploy the initial 3,000 we can can then shoot for a million laptops, for then the sky will be the limit. Don't you reckon? -- Larry.


:Which colleagues? Where is the concern expressed? I can't see the context of your anonymous response. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 01:03, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Ich vermisse die deutsche Version dieser Seite Jakob Mitzlaff


::Ah, I see, you are commenting about the page [[Collaborative_GrantProposal]]. Please put comments about that page on the talk page of that page. See [[Talk:Collaborative_GrantProposal]] That page and others should also move to be under a project, to avoid confusion. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 01:14, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
I have focused this project since mid-2005,at first I don't believe that it can become true,but as many world lead level scientists and corportation joined in this project,new achievement in every course, I do believe it can make this dream true.


== Please not only "black kids with XO's on the front page also pics with "white kids". Making stand out more that the XO-XServer combination is the best laptop out there, also for rich kids ==
I have some ideas to improve the project in China if the product will be finished,and there are maybe many problems facing the fact because China has large area,different culture,how to manage transportation,how to repair,how to train them ,etc,it's real facts.It must be considered before the donation,otherwise it will bring some trouble,I think it is important to establish a small office or to find a cooperative enterprise first.
Imho one of the reasons OLPC takes such a long time to catch on in developed countries, is that there's too many pics of poor black, asian, lating american kids associated with it. This is misleading many people into thinking that this is a poor kids laptop/initiative and for sure the laptop is not something that's good enough for kids in "normal"/"rich" countries.
Therefore I'd like to propose to switch the wording of the mission around. Now it reads:
"The One Laptop per Child non-profit develops a low-cost laptop—the "XO Laptop"—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world's most isolated and poorest children by giving each child a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop; and software tools and content designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning."
but watch this:
"The One Laptop per Child non-profit develops a low-cost laptop—the "XO Laptop"—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world's children by giving each child the best rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop configuration - the XO and XServer combination; and software tools and content designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. At OLPC, we will focus on the most isolated and poorest kids and we assume the regions that are well structured and rich enough, to auto-organize themselves in developing capacity, demo-projects and full-scale deployments."
Pls vote this latter to the top.--[[User:SvenAERTS|SvenAERTS]] 23:05, 29 April 2013 (UTC)


== OLPC Tablet ==
I heard that Mr.Negroponte will visit our country in couple weeks, it maybe take a blockbuster .I wish I have pleasure to meet him.I hope I can learn from core team ,I try to contribute something .


Discussion of hardware and software of the tablet is noticeably absent from this wiki. Questions parallel those pertaining to the laptop. How is the case built? Glued or welded together? Can the battery be replaced? Anyone succeeded in upgrading the Android system or installing another system. Anyone outside Vivitar developing software? Silence is imposed by Vivitar? Merely from the tablet being new?
Interesting interview here (6th April 2006):
http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/business/stories/140370.html


Regards, ... Peter E, [[User:Peasthope|Peasthope]] 15:39, 26 September 2015 (UTC)
:Hi Jakob. I have just finished translating laptop.org into German. See the source file at [[OLPC Germany/translation]]. -- [[User:Mathias Schindler|Mathias Schindler]] 07:46, 7 April 2006 (EDT)


:You are the first person to ask these questions here, which probably means that the interest is nil apart from you. The documentation for Android tablets can be found elsewhere on the internet. It would be unnecessary and would lead to errors if we were to duplicate the documentation for Android. We would also incur a huge load from people looking for Android documentation for products we don't sell. You can find our XO-4 Android documentation, specific to the XO-4, on the page [[Android]]. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 09:34, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
==Recent Changes page==


:: OK thanks. Being first isn't necessarily bad. Given that there is some interest in maintaining the laptops, a similar interest is likely to develop for the tablets as more of them come into use and failures occur. If laptop.org can spare a place for discussion, good. Other possibilities exist. Regarding software, I wonder how the system starts. A Forth PROM? A PC BIOS accessible to the user? Proprietary firmware? I can buy one and explore but documentation wouldn't hurt. Regards, ... [[User:Peasthope|Peasthope]] 15:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
Could you consider changing the Recent Changes page please so that more than the last 50 changes are shown? Sometimes more than 50 changes are made in a day so it may be impossible for some of the people who like to follow changes to catch all of them. Could 50 be the default with the user able to select a greater number? Could a criterion of "latest 50 or all changes in the latest two days if greater than 50" be used; that would mean that usually 50 would be displayed, yet more if editing activity has increased.


:::Thanks for the feedback. For the XO laptop, we led the hardware and firmware design process, so our documentation is rich and extensive. But for the tablet, we had no involvement in the hardware and firmware design process, so we don't have documentation to the same extent. We can and do create documentation where the costs of doing so can be offset against a bulk purchase. You'd need to be buying thousands before we could get involved to that extent. If you wish to create documentation, then research how Android is loaded onto tablets and phones in factory and in the field. There's no real need to buy one of our tablets to do this, any Android tablets of the same technology era would be sufficient. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 01:46, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
William Overington 7 April 2006


::::"... our documentation is rich and extensive."
: Hi William. Please consider getting an account at this wiki. Try [http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges&limit=500&days=30 this link] for a longer list of recent changes. -- [[User:Mathias Schindler|Mathias Schindler]] 07:44, 7 April 2006 (EDT)
::::Certainly I appreciate that. XOs have a strong claim to be the best laptops ever built. Thanks!
::::At least some contributions to wiki.lapttop.org have been made voluntarily by users with no formal connection to OLPC. Therefore if a page in wiki.laptop.org were allowed for the tablet, voluntary contributions are possible. A tablet FAQ page for example. It wouldn't have to burden OLPC staff excessively.
::::"... research how Android is loaded onto tablets and phones in factory and in the field."
::::I imagined very elementary questions such as these.
::::Is the screen legible in reflected light?
::::What is a typical usage time before battery recharge?
::::Can the battery be replaced?
::::Regards, ... Peter E., [[User:Peasthope|Peasthope]] 17:35, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
:::::So you're asking me to allow or bless a page you haven't created yet. A page with questions that I'm not empowered to answer, that you call elementary, and that you don't have the answers for. I don't see the sense in that. Who will benefit? Apparently only you, and only for your curiosity. Who will be harmed? It would seem to be a cost and risk to OLPC. So I cannot allow. Tablets are an off-the-shelf generic product, or their specifications are negotiated in a bulk order. They sell for as little as $18 close to point of manufacture in China. There's just not the margin to support a documentation ecosystem for them. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] 20:20, 2 October 2015 (UTC)


== Password for login at wiki.laptop.org ==
== Other Spanish contributor. ==


Hi,<br>
Well, im a spanish linux user with wants to help to OLPC project. I work on University of Sevilla on Spain and work on many open source projects.
As of 2022-04-10, is password change allowed? If so, what are the requirements for a new password? Number of characters, upper/lower case, numerals & etc. Thx, ... [[User:Peasthope|Peasthope]] ([[User talk:Peasthope|talk]]) 13:18, 10 April 2022 (EDT)

:Hope so. At least eight characters. Further guidance will be given by the software, which is MediaWiki. --[[User:Quozl|Quozl]] ([[User talk:Quozl|talk]]) 16:24, 11 April 2022 (EDT)
Have any specific forum, blog, mailing list or something similar for this?

You can find me here asmarin*nospam*us.es or on my discussion page--[[User:Asmarin|Asmarin]] 12:07, 7 April 2006 (EDT)

== The format for expressing dates ==

I notice that the Community News (not a wiki page) has the date as follows.

OLPC News (04/08/06)

In England, that would often be taken to mean 4 August 2006, on the basis of moving from smallest unit (day), to larger unit (month) to largest unit (year) whereas the intention from America is clearly 8 April 2006.

Interpretation as an August 2006 date for the news document would clearly be obviously wrong at this time, yet in the future, for a historian reading through the news items, ambiguity could occur.

I wonder if I could suggest please that there be specified a consistent and unambiguous way of expressing all dates in the documents of the project.

For example, 2006-04-08 would convey the date unambiguously.

However, month names like April can help, though the English way of writing day month year, leading for this example to 8 April 2006, does look more typographically balanced than would the American equivalent of April 8 2006. However, that could produce problems for someone whose first language is not English, or indeed for someone whose first language is English if the document and thus the month name is not in English. So maybe using the yyyy-mm-dd format might be the best for an international multilingual project.

William Overington

10 April 2006

:: I Agree strongly See [http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/iso-time.html International standard date and time notation.] (Doing this for the tilda tags would be good too) [[User:82.133.105.218|82.133.105.218]] 08:34, 10 April 2006 (EDT)

::: Thank you for the link. I have been using GMT for times for years: it appears that that went in 1972! The Z seems a poor choice, easily confusable with a 2. Maybe a U or a lowercase z would be better. So, this message is produced at 2006-04-10 1302Z. William

The Perfect choice: 2006-04-30, as it has the additional property of be ready to be sorted..., A series of fields of dates can be sorted properly without the strange results of sorting dates in other formats... Just a mess... ¿no?... '''''Mexico / Ags./Dagoflores''''' (also from larger to smaller)

== [[OLPC Albania]] ==

Would it be possible to link [[OLPC Albania]] from [http://laptop.org/map.en_US.html]? I recently saw news that the Prime Minister of Albania had expressed interest in the project, so I wrote a small bit in Albanian. Thanks. [[User:Dori|Dori]] | [[User talk:Dori|Talk]] 09:03, 13 April 2006 (EDT)

Done. --[[User:Walter|Walter]]

== The use of the term "kid" ==

I have noticed the use of the terms kid and kids in the news page. I saw the term used somewhere else in the project documents recently and felt concerned. So, I am writing to express that concern.

quote

... in terms of both assembling a library of materials for the kids and putting together a collection of “kid-readable” (they currently support “human-readable”) summaries of their licenses.

end quote

Now, I recognize that maybe Americans use the term kids much more than do British people and that maybe this is just something of British culture, yet in England, referring to children as kids is regarded as slang and would not be used in formal documents and not at all by many people, namely those who feel that they are children, not kids, which are young goats.

Now it may possibly be that a decision will be made that using the term kids is fine, yet if that becomes the case then I feel that it should be a decision, not something which goes by default with the term kid and kids becoming prevalent in documents without anyone ever really thinking about it.

So, I would use the word "children" instead of the word "kids" and "child-readable" rather than "kid-readable".

This issue could well be an issue which is due to cultural differences as between different countries as well as between different people within a country.

These notes are just the view of one person in England.

It would be interesting to know views of other people from various countries, including those of other people in England.

William Overington

30 April 2006

:: I'm British - we know and use the word 'kid' just like Americans do - we don't get at all confused by 'baby goats' - don't sweat it, you have better ways to spend your efforts. ''SteveBaker - Texas''

== Provenance of wiki pages ==

I am wondering if something needs to be done about the provenance of pages in the wiki.

For example, I looked at Recent Changes earlier this morning and this led me to look at the new page OLPC Google Summer of Code, which had the message "Coming soon.".

That page now has messages from up to five people and includes a message about applying for an internship in Boston.

I feel that it would be better if wiki pages which with official validity invite applications for internships or which with official validity describe OLPC projects are writeable only by people who are part of the management team and that any such page has some logo of provenance that the information on the page may be relied upon as having the provenance of being correct information from the official project management.

Certainly, the ability for ordinary participants, such as myself, to start new pages and edit existing ones is a great facility and long may it continue. However, where information could result in people applying for positions or spending time studying and researching, it would, I feel, be best if there is some explicit provenance system so that people can know whether the particular wiki page has the provenance of containing official information or has the provenance of being a page which may contain information provided by any participant.

William Overington

2 May 2006

== Feedback on OLPC News (2006-05-06) ==

Item 3 is as follows.

3. Mark Foster hand-carried the first three pre-A-Test prototype OLPC
electronics boards to Cambridge this week. Together with Michail Bletsas,
Chris Blizzard and the Red Hat team, they brought up the mini-Fedora
distribution. This means that we now have a stripped-down distribution that
will boot and run off a USB key, somewhat similar to the actual
requirements of the real hardware.

=== Feedback.===

==== pre-A-Test prototype OLPC electronics boards ====

What does "pre-A-Test" mean please? I have heard of beta tests and I am not entirely sure what that means. Could you possibly explain the testing sequence please?

:pre-A-Test boards are essentially untested boards; A-Test boards are debugged manually; B-Test boards are tested automatically--the last step towards manufacturing. We are pulling a few pre-A-Test boards just to accelerate the software development process. The good news is that these boards are working with few if any modifications, a testiment to the skill of the Quanta Team and Mark Foster from OLPC. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 11:25, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

==== to Cambridge ====

Is that from Taiwan?

:yes [[User:Walter|Walter]] 11:29, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

==== Together with Michail Bletsas, Chris Blizzard and the Red Hat team, they brought up the mini-Fedora distribution. ====

What is the "mini-Fedora distribution" please? Is it a version of the linux operating system?

:The Red Hat team is making a "stripped-down" version of Red Hat's Fedora Core 5 Linux distribution. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 11:28, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

==== boot and run off a USB key ====

I have found from wikipedia that one meaning of USB is "Universal Serial Bus".

What does "key" mean here please? I am thinking that the whole sentence is about that in the event of a laptop having a software crash that the whole operating system can be rebuilt by attaching something (the "key") to a USB port of the laptop and then proceeding in some way. Is that correct please?

:From Wikipedia[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keydrive]: USB flash drives are also known as "pen drives", "chip sticks" (though very uncommonly), "thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys", and a wide variety of other names. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 11:17, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

Could you possibly elaborate on what happens please and how, once the laptops are deployed, a child would proceed in order to rebuild the operating system in the event of a total software crash. I am thinking that it would need to be fairly straightforward yet something which could only happen with deliberate action, not by accidently pushing a large reset button or anything like that.

:We have a goal of easy restore and upgrade and are working on the scenarios. The goal is to distribute upgrades to school servers and then use the peer-to-peer network further distribution. We will have some sort of "trust" scheme--to be determined--for authentification. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 11:17, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

::Thank you for providing the further information.

== Who are you guys? Is OLPC a community project? ==

I saw a pseudo-thread over on here, linked from 'myths':

http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Software_Ideas_-_System_Software#Operating_System_Selection
and
http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Education_Ideas_Esperanto

And it raised my eyebrow. Of COURSE this has to run a flavor of linux, perhaps a really lite flavor, relative to the latest kernel. Proposing otherwise (like using Syllable OS or PalmOS) "contributes" as much to the project as debating whether the native language should be Esperanto. Generous estimate of 2,000 "native speakers"? 100,000 skilled users? There was a lot of text devoted to debating Esperanto. I posit that various editors had to expend more than expedient effort to 'debate away' esperanto w.r.t OLPC.

: The http://www.laptop.org/ webspace contains the official project pages. The project management has decided to provide the wiki facility at http://wiki.laptop.org and allow anyone who so chooses from anywhere in the world that the webspace can be accessed to join in discussions and put forward comments and ideas. Some ideas put forward may well not be accepted. People can put forward ideas which might be regarded as highly controversial, yet it is useful for such ideas to be put forward as they have been put forward in a spirit of goodwill for the project to succeed. A different approach could have been to say that an idea will not even be considered unless it is put forward by someone who is an employee of one of the sponsoring organizations. That way some good ideas could have been missed through an unwillingness to assess ideas on their merits rather than on from where they are suggested. It is good that they took the approach that they did. Also, it is a two-way street so to speak. I feel that I have learned a great amount myself by participating in reading from and writing in the wiki. Indeed, I am thinking that that very process may well be an example of the process of constructionist learning which is advocated as part of the project ideas for learning for the children, though it would need someone who knows more about constructionist learning than do I to say whether I am correct in that thinking.

From there, my question: Is OLPC a community project by the editors of this wiki? If not, what is the purpose of this 'pedia? Does Negroponte read these pages?

: Well, it is not a 'pedia, in the sense of an encyclopedia, it is a wiki for discussion and idea generation. Two items, discussions of whether to use an operating system other than linux and of the role of Esperanto in the project, were mentioned. Yet there are many ideas which have been put forward by many people in the ideas pages. If only one of them is used by the project then the wiki and the policy of allowing access to everyone will have been of value. If lots of them are used by the project then the wiki and the policy of allowing access to everyone will have been of great value. Once the project has developed, how many aspects of the system and infrastructure that then exist will be as a result of ideas put forward in this wiki?

* Yes, if this were truly community-focused, there shoul be Brazilians, Nigerians, Chinese, Thais here now. Let's face it - ones the machine is ready, how it is used shall be the least of Project's concerns. It's hardware-power is at least 10 years old, so the people in involved countries can help themselves with the software.

== The orange machine ==

<table>
<tr>
<td>
A new picture has appeared on the Main Page.

There appear to be two upward-pointing arms.

It looks as if they may be moveable and would be folded down when the machine is being transported. Is that corect please?

:Yes, teh fold in to cover the USB ports and to be out of the way during transportation. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

Do the two upward-pointing arms contain aerials for the WiFi system?

:Yes, these are the aerials for the WiFi. Having them rise above the screen will make a big difference in the SNR of the system.

</td>
<td valign=top>
[[image:orange-machine-rotate-small.jpg]]
</td>
</tr>
</table>
I am wondering as to the health and safety aspects of having these items sticking up in the air when the laptops are being used in a room full of children. However, maybe the arms are just up in the air for showing some aspect of the design in the photograph and would not be up in the air like that when the laptop was being used. What is the situation please?

:What is the health issue that is raised by having aerials that raise? [[User:Walter|Walter]] 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

::I am expressing concern at the possibility that a child (not necessarily the child sat using the machine, perhaps a child walking by in a crowded classroom) might slip and then fall onto a machine and receive an injury from the sticking up item, perhaps a serious eye injury. From the picture, it just seems to me to look dangerous.

Has a health and safety assessment been made of the design, made in the context of using the machine in a room full of children?

:We are working hard to make the laptop as safe as possible. [[User:Walter|Walter]] 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

I miss the crank or the replacement of the crank.

:It has moved to the power brick.[[User:Walter|Walter]] 21:45, 3 June 2006 (EDT)

The power brick.... Could you give a better description.. It just sounds like a removable battery. In that case i don't appeal to it.. The crank gave it a big thumbs up to the ecosystem :-)

==What stops the thieves?==
What will prevent gangs from targeting children who have these highly desirable laptops, and stealing them for resale? [[User:62.6.139.14|62.6.139.14]] 11:03, 24 May 2006 (EDT)

:The garish childlike colors and the toy appearance of the units will make them undesirable for adults to use or steal. But do not underestimate the child owners. They will know very well that this is a valuable object which they have been entrusted with. They will not want to lose them and will be careful about where they take them and when.

::You could consider having the laptop only work if the child enters a password of their own choosing. This (if well known) would deter theft to a degree - but there might also be a risk that the child would be threatened with some kind of violence if they didn't divulge their password - after all, in some parts of the world, $100 is a LOT of money. An alternative might be to have the laptop learn the IP addresses of the other laptops in the child's classroom - if it doesn't hear from at least (say) half of the other laptops on it's list at least (say) once a week - it goes to sleep until it does hear from them. No passwords - but no point in stealing a laptop unless you are taking it to school - which would be a bit obvious. Just a thought. ''SteveBaker''.

== A good use for the 3rd laptop... ==

I mainly use my laptop at home as an X term to my main Linux box. The features of this laptop make it very suitable for this task. So, for $300 you get a nice X term (at least!) and donate 2 to a great cause. And letting my children use it may produce some good ideas for improvement from a child's point of view.

I hope this project takes off and flies high.

== The launch countries ==

> Regarding the task force meeting, we have gathered together the task forces from our launch countries to brainstrom and share ideas about both learning and deployment issues. It has been an exciting and fruitful meeting of the minds.

This is good news, as is the demonstration of the working prototype.

Could you say which are the launch countries please?

There is the map on the following page with some countries shown in green.

http://www.laptop.org/map.en_US.html

Are they Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Nigeria, Thailand?

Are there any others?

== letter to the project ==

Dear OLPC,

In researching positive initiatives for a human geography project, I was very interested to find your project which offers a $100 laptop to poor countries. I take for granted all the benefits I get from computers every day-- I probably learn more from them than books. However, there are some concerns I have about possible pitfalls in this project.

You plan to distribute the laptops through the government in such countries as China. How will you make sure that the laptops are distributed fairly, and not just to kids in communist party households? It seems like the plan is all to presumptive that the governments will fairly distribute the technology.

Also, another concern I'm sure you've heard raised is that the hardware is not open source. Won't proprietary, closed-source software limit the spread of the laptops?

I also read that you are working on making the laptop more "green". Could you perhaps provide some details on what steps you're taking to make it safe for the environment?

Lastly, concerns have been brought up about the economic effect of releasing the computers in a closed market. What is your response to critics who argue that computer companies in poor countries would be hit negatively by the wide availability of these laptops.

Thanks for your concern, but more importantly, thanks for your work towards a good cause.

Sincerely,

Ben

The word industrial is not spelt correctly on the main page.




Dear Ben...

1. How many active communist nations can you name off?
2. A good cause?
Let me ring in on this a bit...

What proof has anyone given that personal computers advances poverty stricken nations? I say that it does not. Looking at high schools around this nation that have expanded their computer systems vastly still accomplish the same ammount of learning they did before. The answer to a poverty stricken society is not computers! It is funding put forth into their school systems to renovate current buildings, staff the schools better and with more qualified teachers and build new schools where they are in great need. Invest time and money into finding a way to lower the cost of this, then start raising $100 per child and put it into their school systems.

Most children would not even use laptops for educational purposes anyways.

Example of technology at waste:
At my old high school they decided it was essential for all students in an AP (advanced placement) class to have Palm pilots, which is a brand of hand held computers. Well, they used the palms for about 3 days and never took them out again.

upgrade current schools, build new schools, staff them better...after all of that is accomplished, then worry about getting kids cheap laptops.

So again, a good cause i ask? maybe...but definitely far far down the list of importance

Remember these words once this program launches and begins distribution, you can all tell me im right once you see the children in the SAME exact state as they were before the laptops after any period of time...5, 10, 15 years it matters not. This will accomplish nothing


~David Bobrowski
dabobrow@yahoo.com

:::Well those points may have some accuracy. I don't agree very much at all. Even in America I've seen schools where there aren't any computer labs at all. Only a number of teachers have their OWN personal computers. All research is done on old books which haven't been updated since literally 1982. Which in fact did compromise my learning ability. People could write programs to teach kids different languages, how to read, how to do math with these within a year or two. I've also had serious problems with hand writing and the use of a computer has changed everything for me. Another point against your argument is why are you waisting your time putting down people that are truly trying to help out down when you could be doing all the things that in your mind do something. If you can't do those things then why not try instead of what your currently doing. These people are focusing on one issue and i believe their doing a great job at it too. I just don't think leaving it up to the government is a good idea. And buying in bulk (thousands) isn't realistically in any sense. The best place for these in my mind would be a middle school There is also a BIG difference between these and palm pilots. (I'm not apart of this project at all.. wish i was but not) These have a sleek small and portable design and unlike a palm pilot they have much better capabilities and real uses to them other then making a few notes and listening to a couple songs (i have 2 palm pilots and agree their not worth it). The only thing i truly have against the program is that i can't purchase one myself. I wouldn't mind spending 200 dollars one one of these maybe ensuring someone else in the world could get one sent to them or simply ensuring the program to continue. I'm also not so excited about the RedHat Distributions (I'm a debian man) but still these systems are a brilliant idea and hope they keep going. E-mail me at lilchris173@yahoo.com with any questions, comments, or collaborations.



== Negroponte's quote ==

I think you should find a prominent place for Negroponte's quote:
'''It's an education project, not a laptop project'''
:I totally agree with this. It would answer %50 of the questions coming in instantly--[[User:Stranger|Stranger]] 10:26, 14 June 2006 (EDT)

== Oops, hanging word... ==

Unfortunately, the change that I made to wordwrap around the picture in the Image tag, caused the very last word of the section to be left all alone under the picture. Of course, that is only on my screen size and browser setup. However, there is a general solution to the problem and that is to include enough extra text that 99% of viewers will see a few full lines of text after the picture.

Latest revision as of 20:24, 11 April 2022

Please add main page comments by clicking on the '+' link next to the word 'edit' above.

LiveCD in Latest releases out of date

Hello. In the "Latest Releases" box, the link to the LiveCD must be updated. It still refer to Build 385, while a recent version is available (ftp://rohrmoser-engineerinit is probably the most useful link over there, and at first this was going to be a gripe about it going away entirely, but then I realized someone had just mis-categorized it (IMHO). You can lose the Random Page link for all I care (as SJ has observed , it's more or less a ticket to an XO Korea page anyway. Cjl 15:07, 24 April 2008 (EDT)

I'm torn about where to put it. It is both about the project -- a way to see its current activity -- and of course about the wiki. It was moved because it was 'below the fold' on most monitors. I'm open to other suggeestions. And I still find randompages useful; olpc korea is only ~15% of the site :) --Sj talk 13:37, 4 May 2008 (EDT)
There is enough real estate "below the fold" to have a second copy of the link under OLPC wiki. I'm not the only one asking. See FGrose comment elsewhwere. Cjl 18:30, 4 May 2008 (EDT)

Add Machine Translation

I would like to add the GoogleTrans-en template to the Main page. In spite of the worthy efforts of many translators in many languages, the number of edits to this page are more than any handful of humans can keep up with. By adding this template it will allow users the option of accessing a translation of this pageGoogleTranslation in one of 22 languages, they will have access to "good enough" translation of more current content. Furthermore, the Google translation frame will allow them to navigate the rest of the wiki from this entry point with translation turned on, if they so choose. See for example my User:page User:Cjl, select any language and then navigate off the page by any of the links while the Google translation frame is active. It is also simple to dismiss the translation frame and switch back to the original verison of the page.

The argument against relying solely on human translations. I reviewed the other lang-xx versions of this page (certainly one of the most translated and updated pages) and recorded the most recent version number from the translation template. Clearly many of these are cases of the version number not being kept up to date (a challenge in itself), but on the other hand, history shows many of these pages have not had substantial revisions for months and months. No matter how much you might prefer a human translation, you must admit that at present, the community of lang-xx translators cannot keep pace with the larger community of lang-en editors. We should not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Cjl 22:41, 19 May 2008 (EDT)

Version lang
130711	en
 33113	ar
 76798	bg
 33477	de
 75214	es
 37382	fr
 54129	it
 99961	ko
 68032	no
 81739	pt
 33477	ro
102681	ru
 60725	zh
 60725	zh-TW
please remind me why this is better than the translation links in the skin... placement? --Sj talk 06:37, 5 September 2008 (UTC)

Moved comment from 200.101.90.215

Looks horrible on IE6 * Please fix *

noted! --Sj talk

"How to update" links to old page!

"How to update" link on Main page (in box) links to a page saying there is a newer version of this page available (?!) 76.243.220.21 02:11, 15 October 2008 (UTC)

New main page design

We need a total redesign of the page. Mel and Seth and others have been saying the same thing for a while... so let's actually design a new model and implement it. I'd like to see something like the catalan wp main page : with small colorful in-page tabs, a highly summarized and limited set of information in short paragraphs and bullet points, each linking to details elsewhere on the wiki, and a set of alternative page views including a static html view, for usability.

Each of the sections of the main page is another target for maintenance -- people interested in one area of news or another, in feeds or images or media, can keep that part of the main apge up to date without worrying about the currency of the rest of it; and without interlacing the overall page history with the section history. Now we only need to get the Design gang involved...24.61.14.99 06:15, 16 October 2008 (UTC)

But the new main page design is barren and still static. It needs love! I still like the wikitravel and wikieducator homepages best... along with the catalan Wikipedia. --Sj talk 21:15, 21 December 2008 (UTC)

Participation

The menu on the left should include a link to the Participate page. It could perhaps replace several of the more specific topics there.--Mokurai 19:37, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

UBUNTU

How about, let us easily install ubuntu?

I just wrote a howto for Ubuntu Lucid (10.04). It is a slightly involved, but fairly straightforward process. :] It would be nice if someone figured out what changes the stock Ubuntu kernel needs in order to work. --Maxxflow 19:57, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Concise mission improvement

How about, improving concise mission? As a member of the indigenous Australian community I am very offended with the amount of racism that is going on here.
People may be blind to their own racism. Feel free to edit in non-racist language. --FGrose 01:30, 2 November 2011 (UTC)

New discussions moved to the Cafe

See OLPC:Cafe for more. --Sj talk

Helping with this wiki

I would like to help out maintaining this wiki, however a lot of pages are locked from editing for me. Is there some solution for this? e.g. can somebody give me admin status? It is mostly wikilinks fixing what I want to do, but this wiki suffers from bad linking quite a lot.--Kozuch 21:03, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Sounds great. You've made one edit already. Keep going. For things you can't edit, mention them to those who can. Once the trust develops, and the load increases, we will probably increase your access. --Quozl 22:11, 4 January 2011 (UTC)

Watchlist feeds

Hi there,

what about upgrading MediaWiki in order to have watchlists accessible via RSS/ATOM feeds as for instance Wikipedia or OSM Wiki have? It would help me a lot in watching this site.--Kozuch 08:57, 10 January 2011 (UTC)

Any news here?--Kozuch 12:50, 24 September 2011 (UTC)
There are these links in Sidebar Toolbox section for the Related changes page, RSS and atom,
and similar ones on the Recent changes page for the wiki (reach it from the Sidebar, About OLPC). --FGrose 16:58, 25 September 2011 (UTC)

Humbly Opine

Regarding the concern expressed by some colleagues that 3,000 laptops is less than a rain drop in an ocean, I would humbly opine that once we successfully deploy the initial 3,000 we can can then shoot for a million laptops, for then the sky will be the limit. Don't you reckon? -- Larry.

Which colleagues? Where is the concern expressed? I can't see the context of your anonymous response. --Quozl 01:03, 19 January 2011 (UTC)
Ah, I see, you are commenting about the page Collaborative_GrantProposal. Please put comments about that page on the talk page of that page. See Talk:Collaborative_GrantProposal That page and others should also move to be under a project, to avoid confusion. --Quozl 01:14, 19 January 2011 (UTC)

Please not only "black kids with XO's on the front page also pics with "white kids". Making stand out more that the XO-XServer combination is the best laptop out there, also for rich kids

Imho one of the reasons OLPC takes such a long time to catch on in developed countries, is that there's too many pics of poor black, asian, lating american kids associated with it. This is misleading many people into thinking that this is a poor kids laptop/initiative and for sure the laptop is not something that's good enough for kids in "normal"/"rich" countries. Therefore I'd like to propose to switch the wording of the mission around. Now it reads: "The One Laptop per Child non-profit develops a low-cost laptop—the "XO Laptop"—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world's most isolated and poorest children by giving each child a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop; and software tools and content designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning." but watch this: "The One Laptop per Child non-profit develops a low-cost laptop—the "XO Laptop"—to revolutionize how we educate the world's children. Our mission is to provide educational opportunities for the world's children by giving each child the best rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop configuration - the XO and XServer combination; and software tools and content designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. At OLPC, we will focus on the most isolated and poorest kids and we assume the regions that are well structured and rich enough, to auto-organize themselves in developing capacity, demo-projects and full-scale deployments." Pls vote this latter to the top.--SvenAERTS 23:05, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

OLPC Tablet

Discussion of hardware and software of the tablet is noticeably absent from this wiki. Questions parallel those pertaining to the laptop. How is the case built? Glued or welded together? Can the battery be replaced? Anyone succeeded in upgrading the Android system or installing another system. Anyone outside Vivitar developing software? Silence is imposed by Vivitar? Merely from the tablet being new?

Regards, ... Peter E, Peasthope 15:39, 26 September 2015 (UTC)

You are the first person to ask these questions here, which probably means that the interest is nil apart from you. The documentation for Android tablets can be found elsewhere on the internet. It would be unnecessary and would lead to errors if we were to duplicate the documentation for Android. We would also incur a huge load from people looking for Android documentation for products we don't sell. You can find our XO-4 Android documentation, specific to the XO-4, on the page Android. --Quozl 09:34, 28 September 2015 (UTC)
OK thanks. Being first isn't necessarily bad. Given that there is some interest in maintaining the laptops, a similar interest is likely to develop for the tablets as more of them come into use and failures occur. If laptop.org can spare a place for discussion, good. Other possibilities exist. Regarding software, I wonder how the system starts. A Forth PROM? A PC BIOS accessible to the user? Proprietary firmware? I can buy one and explore but documentation wouldn't hurt. Regards, ... Peasthope 15:04, 29 September 2015 (UTC)
Thanks for the feedback. For the XO laptop, we led the hardware and firmware design process, so our documentation is rich and extensive. But for the tablet, we had no involvement in the hardware and firmware design process, so we don't have documentation to the same extent. We can and do create documentation where the costs of doing so can be offset against a bulk purchase. You'd need to be buying thousands before we could get involved to that extent. If you wish to create documentation, then research how Android is loaded onto tablets and phones in factory and in the field. There's no real need to buy one of our tablets to do this, any Android tablets of the same technology era would be sufficient. --Quozl 01:46, 30 September 2015 (UTC)
"... our documentation is rich and extensive."
Certainly I appreciate that. XOs have a strong claim to be the best laptops ever built. Thanks!
At least some contributions to wiki.lapttop.org have been made voluntarily by users with no formal connection to OLPC. Therefore if a page in wiki.laptop.org were allowed for the tablet, voluntary contributions are possible. A tablet FAQ page for example. It wouldn't have to burden OLPC staff excessively.
"... research how Android is loaded onto tablets and phones in factory and in the field."
I imagined very elementary questions such as these.
Is the screen legible in reflected light?
What is a typical usage time before battery recharge?
Can the battery be replaced?
Regards, ... Peter E., Peasthope 17:35, 2 October 2015 (UTC)
So you're asking me to allow or bless a page you haven't created yet. A page with questions that I'm not empowered to answer, that you call elementary, and that you don't have the answers for. I don't see the sense in that. Who will benefit? Apparently only you, and only for your curiosity. Who will be harmed? It would seem to be a cost and risk to OLPC. So I cannot allow. Tablets are an off-the-shelf generic product, or their specifications are negotiated in a bulk order. They sell for as little as $18 close to point of manufacture in China. There's just not the margin to support a documentation ecosystem for them. --Quozl 20:20, 2 October 2015 (UTC)

Password for login at wiki.laptop.org

Hi,
As of 2022-04-10, is password change allowed? If so, what are the requirements for a new password? Number of characters, upper/lower case, numerals & etc. Thx, ... Peasthope (talk) 13:18, 10 April 2022 (EDT)

Hope so. At least eight characters. Further guidance will be given by the software, which is MediaWiki. --Quozl (talk) 16:24, 11 April 2022 (EDT)