Talk:Main Page

Things to consider before editing this discussion page:

HIGHTLIGHTS OF THE DAY

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.

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-proccessor program? If not, the program will fall flat on its face.

• This page is for the discussion of the Main Page, not for specific questions and comments about the OLPC.
• If you have questions about your XO laptop, please see the Support FAQ.
• If you have questions about One Laptop per Child, please go to the OLPC FAQ; if you still have a question, please goto the Ask OLPC a Question page.
• For questions and comments about specific features, please use the discussion page of the article where that feature is discussed.
• Questions about your Give One Get One order can be found here.
• If you are interested in helping with translations, please go here.
• Please sign all comments using ~~~~.
• Please put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.

Archives : 2006 2007 2008

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.

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-proccessor program? If not, the program will fall flat on its face.

2008

In the interest of a fresh start to a new year, I archived the discussions from the page here. There was an active thread regarding Give One Get One orders, which I moved to here. Wishing everyone a great 2008. --Walter 18:22, 2 January 2008 (EST)

Thank You for the Give One Get One Opportunity

I've been following the one laptop per child movement from the sidelines for sometime now as an MIT alumna and web marketer in higher education. In November, I was very excited to learn of the opportunity to be able to donate a laptop and also get one for my son. I think it is really important for him to be able to share in the experience, learn about education in other parts of the world, and to support this project.

We were especially excited when our XO arrived in time for my eight-year old son to explore the laptop while my 22-year old son was also visiting from the west coast. They have both been very impressed and have had fun together using it. We spent one day walking around Boston, from the Common to Fanueil Hall, along the waterfront to a cafe in the North End, and on the T back through Cambridge, all the while finding hotspots to access the Internet and playing with the sound analyzer and video cam. My older son's friends are all jealous (I'll be directing at least one of them to your XO emulator on PC info) and the mom of two of my younger son's friends was going to look into giving and getting an XO for them, too, altho I don't know if she made the December 31st deadline -- will you be having another window of opportunity to do this?

Also, I saw the previous comment where someone suggested including a placard with donated laptops and wanted to share an alternate suggestion my sons and their friends had come up with -- wouldn't it be cool if the paired "given one" and "gotten one" laptops automatically networked with each other, sort of like online penpals?

Anyhow, just wanted to say thanks and keep up the good work! 192.138.214.106 12:13, 3 January 2008 (EST)suedown 01/03/08

3rd party peripherals and software

could anyone help me getting a external hard drive (western digital passport) to work on my XO? what about a torrent program? finally, is there some kind of tutorial webpage for using terminal? many thanks sapien

In regard to your third question, it is essential just a vanilla xterm window. Any generic Linux command-line tutorial would be applicable, e.g., [1] and [2] --Walter 22:23, 3 January 2008 (EST)

Status of orders placed in December

My wife couldn't stand it and ordered a G1G1 sometime in mid December. Do you have a window for shipping these units? Bill

Congratulations on the XO!

I can't say enough about the fantastic achievement of the OLPC team and all of it's supporters. I hope that the designer(s) will be nominated for an award for Industrial Design.Keep up the outstanding work (and send an XO to Bill Gates!). Bill

thank you for my xo

Thank you for my new XO, I love it. The only thing I cannot get used t0 is the keyboard made for tiny hands, as my adult fingers are just too big. I also very much appreciate the 1 yr/ free access to t-mobile hotspots and am using one right now, it works great! I hope the child who receives my donated computer is able to learn and enjoy it as much. thanks again for this opportunity & I will spread the word about OLPC! donna

Got mine. Patience, young Skywalker.

There is no excuse for the shipping limbo

I did a VISA charge back today. This is ridiculous. I ordered on Nov 13th. Still no laptop. It was a Christmas gift for my young son. I feel I've been taken advantage of... OLPC owes everyone a big apology. If they can't ship one to my son, why should I believe they are shipping them to Africa or wherever?

I think I'm going to pursue a VISA charge back as well. After the very hopeful email earlier this week telling me I'd find out something today, I got this: "Dear Donor,

I have located your donation and your donation confirmation number is 70000XXXXX. Your laptop is currently in our warehouse and preparing to be shipped. You should expect to receive your laptop in February. There is no tracking number currently available because you laptop has yet to ship. Once your laptop ships, you can track it by entering your reference number at http://64.34.176.239/laptop_giving/index.html Thank you for your interest in One Laptop Per Child.

OLPC

Donor Services"

So it appears the fabled January 23rd email is more of the same "in the warehouse and preparing to be shipped" that I've heard for over a month now.

OLPC never fails to disappoint. -Awexome 16:19, 23 January 2008 (EST)

Well, no contested charges for me. With no warning, my xos showed up about ten minutes ago! So this is being posted via XO. And I have to say it's amazing. Fantastic job on the computer and the software. (We'll just never mention the shipping again) -Awexome 12:46, 26 January 2008 (EST)

Canadian "Get" laptops are in. "Early 2008" is an excuse; a "sleight of hand" to distract from the fact that there is no shipping window for these laptops.

Canadian donors... talk to your financial institution about disputing the charges to your credit card. You can, despite OLPC's terms and conditions.

Oh, indeed!! Worse yet, there was no signature requirement, so FedEx is refusing to open claims without OLPC's request. Try getting a hold of anyone at OLPC to get this claim process started, and you'll know the meaning of the word, "frustration." They claim my laptop was shipped, but OLPC failed to send an email with the tracking number until FIVE DAYS after it was to have arrived. Naturally, I'm out a laptop, and neither FedEx or OLPC seems to be able to comprehend the issue.

Shipment to Canada has begun. Again, our apologies for the delay. --Walter 09:57, 12 January 2008 (EST)

How about a laptopgiving.org front page apology to all US donors who still don't have an XO and still have no tracking number? How about a reply to emails? Or less than an hour phone hold times? Or people on the other end that can actually tell us something? How about some real updates on when people are going to see their XOs? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.132.232.147 (talk) 11:03, January 12, 2008 EST

We are working with our donor services contractors to improve process, service, and communication. Note that almost all messages to help AT laptop.org on technical questions receive answers, albeit eventually. ffm 16:11, 12 January 2008 (EST) and --Walter 17:27, 12 January 2008 (EST)

So, it appears as if the 15th will come and go and I will still not have my XO laptops, or even communication sent to me telling me that my order has been delayed, no reason given, nothing. This is sorely dissappointing. You have now had my money for two months, and I still have no laptop, t-mobile code, or any indication or reason to believe that the Give1 XOs are not suffering a similar fate. -74.132.232.147 19:42, 14 January 2008 (EST)

We don't manage shipping. The reason your laptop is taking so long to get to you is mostly because our shipping priority is the third world, we are trying to get them their laptops, as they have more urgent needs. We are working on it, and will get you yours as soon as possible. ffm 19:55, 14 January 2008 (EST)

That would be fine if everything on laptopgiving from day one till today didn't tell me that I should have had the Get1 laptops I ordered by December 24th. Obviously, since I participated, I want this them you speak of to get their laptops, but that, just like "we're a non-profit" is no excuse for horrible planning and customer service. -74.132.232.147 20:13, 14 January 2008 (EST)

May I suggest that you send email to help AT laptop.org? They may be able to help. But they cannot provide much guidance in regard to anonymous postings. --Walter 20:34, 14 January 2008 (EST)

January 16th. No XO. No tracking number. No indication from OLPC or Brightstar when it will arrive (after hours on the phone and numerous emails). Not even an email telling me it wouldn't be arriving by 12/24. All indications on the laptopgiving.org page saying that I should have reveived it by at the very latest yesterday. Bang-up job on this whole G1G1 thing, gents. -128.210.84.49 16:48, 16 January 2008 (EST)

Another hour and a half on hold to be told that it's now "mid-February" and no one has any idea why my laptop hasn't shipped or what's going on with it. No reasons, no explanations. I think G1G1 is a scam, and I will be contesting all charges with the help of my credit card company. Cheerio! -128.210.84.49 18:20, 16 January 2008 (EST)

January 17th I'm in Ottawa. I ordered mine on the first day (Nov 12th) and it was sitting on my porch when I got home yesterday. No duty or taxes were charged. By coincidence I checked the OPL tracking site yesterday during the day with my reference number but it just produced the "well get you you in January/February" message.

Jan 17th and still no word on my order. I did a phone order Nov 19th and didn't receive conformation via email until 12/15/07. I went to the tracking section with my confirmation number in hand and recieved no new information just the dates I was told a long time ago. I still don't know if my laptop is one of the november ones or a december order. Anyone else in my boat? -- Koolkat 10:04, 17 January 2008 (EST)

Received an email today saying that they knew about my issues and I think I am one of the notebooks scheduled to be shipped on the 21st of January. No tracking info as of yet, but hopeful that the laptop will be shipped eventually. Not quite like being able to take it back with me on the plane, but I hope shipping isn't all that bad. -- Koolkat 06:10, 21 January 2008 (EST)

Another email asking for the same information again, but this time to be phoned in to them. Explained that I am in the UK and not in the states so the 1800 number will not work. I can call them on my mobile, but that should be unnecessary, as they in theory should be able to fix it themselves. Recieved an email today stating that: "I will send this on to get taken care of by hand. If you don't hear back within a week, please send another email reminder so that we can give you a progress report. Thanks for your patience!" I will update again to see if anything changes. -- Koolkat 06:18, 24 January 2008 (EST)

Yet another email from them this time a new relevation

There will be big news this week explaining this entire situation. Keep your eyes peeled on (1) http://laptopgiving.org where a much more comprehensive order-tracker should be available later this week and (2) updates on how each donor can get the quickest resolution should be posted on http://wiki.laptop.org/go/G1G1_Fulfillment_Information going forward, as well as our main page likely too later this week: http://wiki.laptop.org

About 5000 laptops will be arriving over the coming week. Then another batch will be arriving later, due to production delays. Hope that help! Stay posted as we finally clear all this up.

So maybe there is hope. I wonder what the information that will be given out later this week is? Possibly that they hadn't expected the demand and there was some sort of lottery system behind the scenes to determine when people would get their laptop? Wouldn't suprise me. -- Koolkat 11:20, 28 January 2008 (EST)

Another update

We're happy to inform you that your XO laptop has shipped. In order to help you get the most out of your experience with the XO and One Laptop per Child (OLPC), here are some important links. Please save this email for reference. To find out everything you need to know to get started with your XO laptop, please click here or visit www.laptopgiving.org/start. Your order reference number: Edited out Please click here to track your order on our website. For Terms and Conditions of the Give One Get One initiative, click here. To learn more about T-Mobile USA's offer to provide one year of complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot, click here. Please note that to activate this offer, you will need to enter your Give One Get One order reference number: editedout From all of us at OLPC, thank you for your participation in Give One Get One. Your gift will help give children around the globe amazing, new opportunities to grow, explore, learn and express themselves. We hope you enjoy your XO laptop!

So I am guessing it will be at my house sometime soon. Then only a nice cross atlantic trip and I will finally be able to check it out. Here's to everything working (in theory) -- Koolkat 09:26, 31 January 2008 (EST)

Woohoo, just got an email and the laptop is at home, now just a small wait until it gets to the UK. -- Koolkat 04:56, 1 February 2008 (EST)

Same boat... All I keep getting is "all circuits are busy" and the same ridiculous, unhelpful message that all laptops will ship in the US by 1/15. Guess what?! It's 1/17... and still now real response from anybody but an autobot.

At the very least, thanks for the changing of the tracking page. It helps to see something telling me that I should not necessarily already be posting to this wiki on my XO. -Awexome

I just wanted to check on things, am still on hold after an hour, no tracking number and I am in the US. Oh well, so much for OLPC.

One response after three emails sent. One call where I received very little information. They should do a lot better. I plug my information into the tracking page and get squat. At least I don't get an invalid ID anymore. Just a generic "We are working hard..." message with a broken link.

My name is Dion and I to am having the same problem. I orderd my computer in early December. I have no Kowledge of when it is coming, just the usual run around and broken links. Here is something that everyone is missing. I understand that this is a gift for a third world country, and that is the major reason for my pledge, but did they dare to stop and think about the child I purchased this for. The girl who has to go to school every day talking about a Christmas Gift that she still hasn't recieved, and may never recieved. I am begining to wonder if the third world reciepints have received their laptops at all. It strikes me very odd that they would be able to manage third world distribution over Continental. Hmmmm!!!! We deceided yesterday the 21st of January to try and cancel our order and just go and buy a laptop. We did recieve a response on this. Our order is being processed for shipping and can not be cancelled. My order has been processed for shipping for a very long time now, yet still no information. They tell me to use my reference number to track the progress. When I go to that page I receive a general message with no time frame and then a link to track it again. Yet when I attempt that I get a broken link message. I am starting to wonder how much thought and planning both went in to the computer and the logistics. Someone had mentioned I hope these guys are honored. Tell that to the child waiting for her Christmas Gift. I will give the Laptop people one more week and then I am cancelling my Payment.

Well I have recieved a tracking number. Then afterwards 30 minutes later I recieved a following e-mail stating they are waiting for more inventory for delivery. We will see how it goes.

New news. The tracking number was for something else I had ordered. So basically NO COMPUTER STILL.

I AM DONE> IWOULD SUGGEST EVERYONE CANCEL THEIR ORDER>!!!!!!!! THIS IS B.S.

I repeat if you haven't recieved your order CANCEL IT!!!!!!!!!!!

New news today. Laptops are now 45-60 Days away from being delivered. These people are full of shit. How is last week I couldn't cancel my order because my Laptop was being shipped, now it isn't even built, or the people they gave the paypal shipping excuse to. Had you not have lied to me I would have been allright, but lie after lie after lie, pisses me off, especially in a donation situation. I apologize to whomever was supposed to receive the laptop overseas, but blame the company not me. I am getting my money back before this company dissapears.

free concept map tool download for XO

The IHMC has released CmapTools for the XO, see http://cmap.ihmc.us/xo/ (free for educators)

CmapTools allows collaborative concept mapping over the internet, you may need to learn to use it on a regular laptop before trying it on the XO (screen size)

...Roy

The instructions given at the IHMC site seem to be for an early build and are not easily followed for the G1G1 releases. It would be nice if someone would update this.

...w9zsj

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