OLPC:News: Difference between revisions
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=LAPTOP NEWS= |
=LAPTOP NEWS= |
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1. Jim Gettys reports that on Thursday we released our first integrated |
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1. Stealing a page: Stephon Marbury, a superstar guard on the NY Knicks, yesterday introduced the Starbury, a $15 pair of sneakers aimed at poor kids whose parents cannot afford the up-to $200 that some high-end sneakers cost. Marbury says he will even wear the Starbury in NBA games this winter. Maybe OLPC has started something. (The story appeared in Friday's NY Times.) |
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software build, bringing together the fruits of months of labor by |
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contributors all over the world—individuals and the teams working at AMD, |
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Marvell, Red Hat, and OLPC. |
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The release includes: |
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2. David Cavallo reports that the Brazilian government is finalizing their plans for all aspects of laptop roll-out. As the project to date has been coordinated by the presidency with the assistance of the Ministry of Education, they will now begin to work more deeply with other ministries. |
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* LinuxBIOS; |
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3. Alan Kay and the eToys team came to the OLPC offices in Cambridge this week to get an update on the UI (which went through several more iterations this week) and to demonstrate eToys running on the OLPC hardware. Without any extensive fine-tuning, simple eToys animations were able to run at up to 10 hertz. The team will be back in September to work more closely with Red Hat and OLPC in integrating our efforts. |
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* using Linux as a bootloader; |
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* the GX framebuffer console device driver; |
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* the “AMD” Enterprise X Architecture (EXA) X Window System driver with early |
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* support for alpha blending; |
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* native Linux support for updating the BIOS flash; |
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* JFFS2 file system support for the internal flash; |
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* the Marvell wireless driver; and |
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* a very early version of the Sugar user-interface framework. |
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As a result, the A-Test boards can now function as a complete computer |
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4. There are two new essays that overview the project in the wiki: “The Children's Machine” is a description of the OLPC technology written by Stephen Michaud; “Learning Vision” is a description of our epistemological approach written by David. (See [[The Children's Machine]] and [[Learning Vision]].) |
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system, without need of an external disk or flash key. Our particular |
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thanks to Richard Smith and Ron Minnich of the Linux BIOS project, and |
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Jordan Crouse of AMD for this work. |
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2. Another software milestone is also in sight: Mark and the team begin |
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5. The camera sensor has been the focus of considerable discussion over the last week. Two key changes were made: first, the camera has been changed |
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working with Marvel this week on the CAFE hardware/software debug. Rapid |
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from an optional component to a standard feature—all OLPC machines will incorporate a video camera; second, the camera itself has been increased in resolution. While the initial camera sensor had offered CIF (352×288) resolution, the new camera sensor will offer the considerably higher VGA (640×480) resolution. |
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progress is being made: Mitch Bradley can perform DMA transfers to an SD |
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memory card and Dave Woodhouse has use it to successfully mounted a JFFS |
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file system. |
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3. As OLPC document format discussions proceed, Ivan Krstić spoke with |
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Chuck Smith at Heilbronn University. Chuck lead a session at the recent |
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WikiSym '06 conference that attempted to provide a standardized alternative |
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document format that could be implemented in all major wiki software. The |
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developers of eight popular wiki engines, among them the one that powers |
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Wikipedia, have agreed to implement support for this new format—dubbed |
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WikiCreole. This format overlaps significantly with the format Ivan is |
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designing for OLPC, so we have decided to make WikiCreole a strict subset |
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of the OLPC document format. Minor changes to both formats have already |
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been incorporated as a result of the collaboration; work continues. |
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4. Clotilde Fonseca, the executive director of the Omar Dengo Foundation in |
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Costa Rica, re-affirmed their interest and excitement to bring the 2B1 |
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machine to the region. The Foundation in the past few years has begun |
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providing support throughout the region in addition to their almost 20 |
|||
years of work providing world-class support for computers in schools, as |
|||
well as using computers for community development, micro-enterprise |
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creation, and support for democracy. Clotilde also worked with us to plan |
|||
for development of new content for schools in Spanish to take advantage of |
|||
the immersive presence of laptops. |
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5. David Cavallo spoke to more than 60 people from the Omar Dengo |
|||
Foundation staff and “assessores,” the people who go to schools to provide |
|||
teachers professional development and help instantiate powerful learning |
|||
environments. He presented the OLPC machine and vision and also discussed |
|||
ideas around laptops and learning, and how a 1:1 approach with connected |
|||
laptops brings new opportunities. Originally scheduled for two hours, the |
|||
session was brought to a close after four hours only so that participants |
|||
could catch their buses home. |
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6. Zephaniah Hull continues work on the touch pad drivers and should have |
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samples in the next few days. He has the Linux evdev (event-based) kernel |
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driver for the touch pad completed. The X Window System implementation to |
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support the touch pad still has bugs he is currently tracking down and |
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eliminating. |
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Laptop News is archived at [http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news Laptop News]. |
Laptop News is archived at [http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news Laptop News]. |
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Revision as of 15:55, 2 September 2006
LAPTOP NEWS
1. Jim Gettys reports that on Thursday we released our first integrated software build, bringing together the fruits of months of labor by contributors all over the world—individuals and the teams working at AMD, Marvell, Red Hat, and OLPC.
The release includes:
- LinuxBIOS;
- using Linux as a bootloader;
- the GX framebuffer console device driver;
- the “AMD” Enterprise X Architecture (EXA) X Window System driver with early
- support for alpha blending;
- native Linux support for updating the BIOS flash;
- JFFS2 file system support for the internal flash;
- the Marvell wireless driver; and
- a very early version of the Sugar user-interface framework.
As a result, the A-Test boards can now function as a complete computer system, without need of an external disk or flash key. Our particular thanks to Richard Smith and Ron Minnich of the Linux BIOS project, and Jordan Crouse of AMD for this work.
2. Another software milestone is also in sight: Mark and the team begin working with Marvel this week on the CAFE hardware/software debug. Rapid progress is being made: Mitch Bradley can perform DMA transfers to an SD memory card and Dave Woodhouse has use it to successfully mounted a JFFS file system.
3. As OLPC document format discussions proceed, Ivan Krstić spoke with Chuck Smith at Heilbronn University. Chuck lead a session at the recent WikiSym '06 conference that attempted to provide a standardized alternative document format that could be implemented in all major wiki software. The developers of eight popular wiki engines, among them the one that powers Wikipedia, have agreed to implement support for this new format—dubbed WikiCreole. This format overlaps significantly with the format Ivan is designing for OLPC, so we have decided to make WikiCreole a strict subset of the OLPC document format. Minor changes to both formats have already been incorporated as a result of the collaboration; work continues.
4. Clotilde Fonseca, the executive director of the Omar Dengo Foundation in Costa Rica, re-affirmed their interest and excitement to bring the 2B1 machine to the region. The Foundation in the past few years has begun providing support throughout the region in addition to their almost 20 years of work providing world-class support for computers in schools, as well as using computers for community development, micro-enterprise creation, and support for democracy. Clotilde also worked with us to plan for development of new content for schools in Spanish to take advantage of the immersive presence of laptops.
5. David Cavallo spoke to more than 60 people from the Omar Dengo Foundation staff and “assessores,” the people who go to schools to provide teachers professional development and help instantiate powerful learning environments. He presented the OLPC machine and vision and also discussed ideas around laptops and learning, and how a 1:1 approach with connected laptops brings new opportunities. Originally scheduled for two hours, the session was brought to a close after four hours only so that participants could catch their buses home.
6. Zephaniah Hull continues work on the touch pad drivers and should have samples in the next few days. He has the Linux evdev (event-based) kernel driver for the touch pad completed. The X Window System implementation to support the touch pad still has bugs he is currently tracking down and eliminating.
Laptop News is archived at Laptop News.
You can subscribe to the OLPC community-news mailing list by visiting the laptop.org mailman site.
Press requests: please send email to press at laptop dot org.
MILESTONES
| Aug. 2006 | Working prototype of the dual-mode display |
| 06 Jun. 2006 | First video with working prototype [1] |
| 28 Jan. 2006 | World Economic Forum, Switzerland UNDP and OLPC Sign Partnership Agreement news release |
| 13 Dec. 2005 | Quanta Computer Inc. to Manufacture Laptop (html)(pdf) |
| 16 Nov. 2005 | WSIS, Tunisia Prototype Unveiled by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan Photos: (Image 1)
(Image 2) (Image 3) |
| Jan. 2005 | Laptop Intiative Officially Announced at World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland |
PRESS
Video
(Misc. videos of the laptop can be found here.)