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archives: through 2006; Jan-Jun 2007

OLPC News Feed?

Is there now or are there any plans to make OLPC news available as an RSS feed? I would very much like to provide my site's readers with up-to-date news on OLPC's progress. Best regards! MT

Will Limited Storage Impact Feeling Of Ownership?

I have been impressed by Seymor Papert's idea that the relationship that users have with their personal computers makes them more powerful. I also note that the storage limitations of the OLPC mean that some portion of the materials of an individual student are likely to be stored on the server. What I am curious about is how this will impact the student's sense of ownership and whether the software will be designed to mitigate this limitation by blurring the distinction of local/remote storage. I imagine that this might be done by something simple like establishing a virtual volume that contains the local and remote materials. Of course it may well be that this isn't an issue at all.

The objective is to have the 'server' space transparently integrated into the 'user' space, so that accessing a resource (ie: a file) stored in the server will be transparent. For more info, you can read OLPC Human Interface Guidelines#Automatic Backup and Restore or OLPC Human Interface Guidelines#The Laptop Experience for a broader view. --Xavi 22:46, 31 May 2007 (EDT)

Game Jam

Can Game Jam games be accessed through FireFox in a format that people can can try it or see an in action demo of the games themes?

If not as many programs can be presented for view in diffrent system formats do you think becuase of the Google link that the program is not being relistic in the real world of internet? In some ways the clanist social pratices of many people and nations is a mid level part of their problem. By following this type of only if you.... belong to the group ,have this kind of system, have a laptop ect... may not be progressive. WHAT DO YOU THINK? jULY 7,2007

Wireless on/off switch?

Does the X0 have a hardware option to turn the wireless off and on? If so, what key(s) are used? If not, is there a simple software option?

Zane

Multiple users per laptop?

I know the philosophy is "One Laptop *PER CHILD*". However, we were wondering about getting just two or three XO's for our preschool, and having the kids share. Is that feasible? Would all the kids have to share the same file space, or is it possible (with user profiles, or separate flash memory cards) for them to have their own space?

SD card size?

How large an sd card can the xo use?

SDHC cards are supported, so at least 4 GB, and probably 8 GB as well. Ben 01:13, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

dial-up

sorry if I'm dumb. If I do the "buy one, give one" thing, and I don't have wireless access, will I be able to access the internet via dial-up?

You can use a USB to serial (RS-232) converter to connect to a modem for dial-up access. Chris 21:25, 14 October 2007 (EDT)

ayudenos a ayudar

Distinguidos Señores de wiki.laptop.org

Mi nombre es Patricio Sharup, vivo en el canton taisha, provincia de morona santiago, amazonia, pais-ecuador. Mi pregunta es, como dar inicio a una apertura de dialogo con esta empresa para ver las posibilidades de cooperacion por parte de wiki.laptop.org.

Saludos cordiales... PATRICIO SHARUP

Posiblemente quieres ir a OLPC_Spanish_America, o a #olpc-es por IRC en freenode.net Ben 01:12, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

Boot Time

As of this date, October 12, 2007, as OLPC prepares to undergo full production, what is the boot time of the XO?

Donating the income of free ad space

I would like to use some free space on my site to place ads. I want to let the income of these ads be donated to the OLPC project. Is there a possibility for me to ensure that the advertisers paid for their ads by donating to your project, without transferring the money to my account first?

Thank you for your interest in donating to OLPC. We recommend that you transfer the money through your account. First, it will allow you to ensure proper credit for a possible charitable donation (please make any donations payable to the OLPC Foundation). Second, tracking and confirm third party payments would introduce an overhead that our small, already multi-tasking team can not take on.

One Laptop in America

It would be nice if we could concern ourselves with providing children in America before we worry about everyone else. My wife is a teacher and cannot even get a single computer in her classroom much less a laptop for every child. Why can't we fix this problem first. I saw the report on Dateline (I think that was the show), and the question was asked if we can purchase them for Americans, and the response was we have to buy two. One for us, and one for someone in another country. Are you kidding me?

OLPC is an international project, not an American project. It so happens that many of the developers are US citizens, but many are not. In all cases, OLPC's philosophy is to deal with Departments of Education. If you would like to see OLPC deployed in your state, you must lobby your Department of Education. If your state wishes to order enough laptops for all entering school children, OLPC will almost certainly be happy to help. Ben 01:08, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

Give 1, Get 1 - warranty/support

For people participating in the Give 1, Get 1 program, how will warranty and support issues be handled? As I understand it, other countries buying XOs for students will buy spares and handle maintenance and repairs themselves. What will be the warranty period for the US purchased XO systems, and will there be some type of mail-in or depot exchange/repair program available (possibly through Quanta)?

G1G1 laptops are currently planned to include a 30 day warranty. Full details will be provided to participants before ordering opens. Ben 00:59, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

is there a scope to filter age-specific or grade-specific information

I am a parent of 7yr old and a teacher educator. I was going through the library grid. The info there is quite useful for children(and educators). I am wondering whether it would be possible to make it in to auto-capsules that are age-appropriate and adequate? For example, I was going through module on animals,the info is vast and a child of say age 7-8 may not require all that is there, may be he/she would be quite thrilled to get some exciting bits of it to begin with. How we can filter? of course one way is through teacher intervention, but typical parental tendency would be to make available all that is out there on the wiki. I would be keen to know any such efforts are made in this direction to sort the info grade wise/age wise? thanks

There are efforts being made in this area in the "OLPC Content" group. You may want to visit Curators and coordinators or visit the #olpc-content IRC channel. Ben 00:55, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

Alex - russian (e-mail removed)

Добрый день. Как можно приобрести ваш компьютер вне правительствненной программы? Очень нужно. salt2002@ukr.net

До сих пор есть одна возможность получить этот компутер вне правительственой программы, покупить в США. [1] Конечно, вам нужен помошник в США и деньги чтобы так делать.

Up to now there is only one way to get this computer outside of government programs, buy it in the USA. Of course, you need a helper in the USA and money in order to do this.

Note: this query seems to come from Ukraine, not Russia, judging by the email address.

Making a donation from a group

As part of a discussion in my Bus Adm 230 Introduction to Information Systems lectures, I talk about the digital divide. As part of this discussion I mentioned projects designed to help bridge this chasm - and of course - talked about the OLPC program.

I have collected over $100 dollars from my students for your project! I will add enough money to bring the total up to $200 - enough to provide a child with an XO laptop. I would like to know the best way to donate this money in the name of my class.

Thank you for giving my students the opportunity to make a difference!

Wonderful! You should go straight to XOGiving.org and click "Donate". Ben 00:51, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

Antennas , plugs

why do the antennas have to be sticking out, as it makes them easily breakable / fragile ? Couldn’t you put them alongside the screen like it is done on other laptops? Although it gives it a fun look, it probably cost more if they can resist real life bending and tearing? What about dust /sand in the plugs, are they isolated from the rest of the case? Are these plugs safe if a child put’s in a paper clip?

Hope I don't offend anyone in asking, trivial questions.

I don't know much about the decisions behind the antennas, but there are several facts that may help answer your questions: The antennas serve double duty; they both provide wireless networking and cover the plugs to provide some protection against dust. Unlike typical laptops, the XO has almost all of its electronics in the screen portion (only the keyboard and battery are in the base), so having an antenna around the edge of the screen might not have been an option due to interference. If I recall correctly from when I last saw an XO, the antennas are rubberized and quite rugged; this is apparently a recent design change in reaction to field tests. This photo shows that the plugs are directly on the motherboard, not really isolated at all, but they may still be adequate for keeping out dust. According to the hardware specification, the laptop conforms to child toy safety standards, among others, which hopefully test for the safety of the ports as well. —Joe 14:04, 17 October 2007 (EDT)

Will the OLPC be able to boot something like PUPPYOS via a USB stick?

Before I consider the purchase of two OLPC laptops, I would like to verify that the hardware will support booting Linux via USB flash devices. I know PuppyLinux was unfortunately quickly dismissed as a possible candidate to run on the OLPC hardware; however, since the AMD Geode is a x86 processor, I am in hopes I can boot PuppyLinux from USB attached devices, IE... USB Flash, Compact flash using USB adapter, hard drive/cdrom/dvdrom using sata/ide-to-USB adapter, etc.. Has anyone on the development team tried to boot any of the later PuppyOS releases on the current OLPC hardware? If so, how did it work?

Thanks Very Much In Advance Regards Ron

give one get one

what will the laptop come with if I get one from the give one get one offer?

See the Activities page to get a sense of the range of software that will come from the laptop.

Give 1: Get One program --> how to run another OS on my olpc

While I am fascinated to try the sugar UI paradigm, I feel that I may wish to run a different light linux distro on an olpc that I get through the "Give 1: Get 1" program in order to work with a broader and more current selection of packages. This raises a number of questions which I haven't been able to find answers for:

• What distros other than the stock image will install easily on the OLPC? I know fedora is related to the OLPC stock image, but is fedora light enough? What about DSL or another light distro?
• What drivers and other software may need to be hand added to these distros to take advantage of the networking and display optimizations of the XO?
• Does the XO hardware have the capability to work with more standard network topologies and use standards such as WPA?

"Easily" is a relative term, and even more so when combined with the words "installing Linux". :) There is a page on the wiki that tells how to install a fairly vanilla Debian on the OLPC (and there's also one for installing Fedora Core, but that is quite old and uses a custom image). Given that Debian goes on fairly easily (where "easily" requires command-line work, a USB key, and an additional Debian machine), I imagine other Linux distributions could be made to work as well. I have seen the XO running off of commodity 802.11b wireless networking, and I understand it also works with ethernet if you have a USB adapter (but not just any adapter will work). —Joe 15:01, 23 October 2007 (EDT)

JVM in XO

Is there any way to install JVM (Java Virtual Machine) or similar tool in XO o run java software?

The Java page implies that there is. —Joe 14:00, 23 October 2007 (EDT)

setting up web proxy in the OLPC machine

Our network is under proxy settings.. could you please help us how to set up web proxy in OLPC machines

I'm not sure if this answers your question, but there is an answer to a similar question about configuring the XO's web activity for web proxies further up on this page. —Joe 19:21, 24 October 2007 (EDT)

WHY?

WHY don't you just buy Pen's paper and textbooks in calgary kids get along really well without laptops1!

Why don't you just buy pens, paper, and textbooks? In Calgary, kids get along really well without laptops!

First of all, it is not clear that the economics of printing and distributing textbooks is favorable relative to distributing laptops. Second, there are many more things you can do with a laptop than you can with just pe and paper: explore, express, compute, communicate etc. Third, I would guess that most children in Calgary have some access to libraries, computers, cell phones, newspaper, television, radio, etc. and teachers! This is not the case for most children in the developing world, for whom we have designed the laptop.

Software

Dear Sirs,

I sent the following email to technology@laptop.org as directed by your web site. I recieved in return an autoresponder email that offers the ability to give laptops away. As you can see by the email I sent, this was not my purpose in contact. Aprend would be happy to contribute whatever it can in the future, but realistically, without software and a purpose, the XO will make a good boat anchor (for a very small boat at 3lbs.) How do we get in touch with a human (not autoresponder) to investigate at which level we may be of assistance?

Sincerly, Rod Gilchrist

Email originally sent:

My name is Rod Gilchrist. I have a small company in Austin, Texas named Aprend. We have developed a learning management system with integrated authorware. Our software is written totally in JAVA. Due to the features of JAVA, the translation of the GUI is a snap. Localization of language of the GUI, regardless of the language or dialect is very easy. The ability to create content is also very easy with the integrated authorware, localization of the GUI for the content creation software is also very easy. in addition, due to JAVA, our software runs under virtually any OS on any hardware.

It appears to me that the OLPC XO project could possibly use our software to deliver education to children using your laptops all over the world, in their localized language.

I would like to investigate an alliance between Aprend and your project to possibly provide our software with the XO laptop to enable educators at the user end of your project.

Please contact me if you are interested. I have attached a trifold brochure word file in hopes of explaining the features to you.

Sincerely, Roderick E. Gilchrist, CEO Aprend Software (512) 328-5119 rod@aprendsoft.com

Java is not supported.

Usability testing

Can anyone tell me if, how, and when usability tests will be (have been, are bring) conducted for the OLPC project? Keith Karn

I'm not sure if this is what you are looking for, but there have been a number of field trials of the XOs, the feedback from which are used to improve the hardware and software. And feedback is solicited at various showings of the device, such as at the Boston Game Jam. I'm not sure if there is any formal usability testing in place, though. —Joe 00:27, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Digital Radio Mondiale

I am interested in making a cheap DRM using avalable AM/FM radio and use it with line in of PC. Can anyone help me regarding the Hardware and Software of the DRM.

If your device only uses the line-in, there will be a standard activity that can record from that port and play it back, like the Record activity. If the device needs an additional communication route (for example to specify tuning or encode/decode radio signals on the CPU), the best route may be through one of the laptop's standard USB connections. There may be more information available via the Peripherals page; the Hardware and Software pages may also have the basic information that you're looking for. —Joe 00:53, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Wired netword card

Is there also a wired network card on the laptop ? I heard that wireless connection can cause brain tumors.

There is no wired network card built-in to the laptops, but USB ethernet adapters can be used. —Joe 12:55, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

MP3 files

I noticed that one cannot download speech podcasts in mp3 format to the xo. Is there any way to download these mp3 files, or download software that will allow it?

There is MP3 software that can run on the laptops, but it's not clear whether it will ship with the laptops or, if not, how easy it will be for a user to install. See the RestrictedFormats page. —Joe 12:55, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Forth in Open Firmware

Is there a usable Forth interpreter one can experiment with and learn from in the firmware?

Apparently, the firmware's Forth interpreter is user-accessible (see instructions in the Open Firmware FAQ). —Joe 12:55, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Okay, that is OFFICIALLY very cool! lol... Thanks for answering, Joe! I'm really looking forward to the "Buy two, get one" in November. :)

Microsoft Windows XP on XOs

Microsoft has been talking about getting the XP to work on the XO systems. I personally would consider Microsoft having anything to do with this project as a mistake. One of the core principals is free and open source software and any moves to work with Microsoft on this project would run contrary to this. Will the OLPC initiative be staying open source and sticking with Linux? -- Thomas (New Zealand)

According to the list of OLPC myths, the officially distributed OS is still Linux. However, an open system means that anyone (including Microsoft) can develop for it. —Joe 17:25, 26 October 2007 (EDT)

Can the antenna give brain tumor ?

No. The wireless system is entirely safe. It is certified for safety in the US by the FCC and Underwriter's Laboratories. Ben 00:46, 31 October 2007 (EDT)

dotFX Java Framework

dotFX, Inc. (www.dotFX.com) has a free framework product called ServerFX which allows the 6 million java developers to take existing java applications and make them "live" software, i.e. desktop distributed through the Internet securely. For example, there are 30,000 existing Java applications (desktop apps / "dead" apps) which can be packaged as a clickable link / icon on the desktop or within a browser.

This provides extreme ease of use and ease of access for OLPC users to many free software applications, not previously accessible.

Please let me know if you would like to learn more. I am interested in leveraging the dotFX innovative technology for the OLPC mission.

Very truly yours - -Pete

Pete Hartigan President, co-founder www.dotFX.com pete@dotFX.com

I can't say whether or not the OLPC people are interested in your product, but note that the XO laptop is being distributed only with open source software and it is not currently shipping with Java. —Joe 12:31, 27 October 2007 (EDT)

Why pay $150 for what is a 10-year-old machine?

There's no need to spend time considering the pro's and con's of selling this computer to the general public. It won't be offered up for sale. Why? For EXACTLY the same reasons they are not being peddled to developed nations: buyers will ask legtimate questions BEFORE buying and then the truth about these computers and their great limitations will be exposed. Why would anyone pay $150 for what is essentially a re-packaged 10-year old machine? (in terms of computer power/storage/software).

If you only restrict your analysis to computer power, storage capacity and bundled software, then you might be right although I do think that you undervalue the bundled mesh networking software. But the real point is that the OLPC has conciously accepted constraints in computer power, storage capacity and bundled software in order to be innovative in other areas. The XO laptop leverages current interface technology far more than any other PC. Nowadays it is common for WiFi interfaces to be built around their own CPU but only the OLPC leverages this so that the main computer can be powered down while the satellite CPU continues to transmit/recieve data. Only the OLPC has the innovative dual-mode LCD technology that allows normal use, as well as a special low-power black and white mode for ebook reading. This is one of very few modern laptops that have no moving parts and therefore are likely to last a long time which means they provide better green value for money.

P.S. I actually picked this question up from a blog comment that I saw, because I think it nicely sums up a widespread view which is also an ill-informed view that undervalues the leading edge technology in this laptop.

Please consider adding "childsplay" to software packages...

The "childsplay" package is a wonderful Python based package that has kept my 3.5 year old productively engaged for the last couple of months and it seems that it would be ideally suited for inclusion in the OLPC software suite. More info on it can be found at:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/childsplay/

http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=1463

Thanks for considering this suggestion.

Sincerely,

Dominic Caffey, dcaffey_fl@yahoo.com

The author of childsplay, Stas Zytkiewicz, has expressed interest in porting it to the XO and apparently has had a preliminary version of it running, so I think there's a good chance it will eventually be available. —Joe 16:28, 28 October 2007 (EDT)

Internet Access

Is there any program on the XO computer that eliminates inappropriate web access sites for kids?

Information on the Internet and Peru trial pages suggests that the countries themselves will be responsible for providing an Internet connection that is appropriately filtered. —Joe 18:17, 28 October 2007 (EDT)

Can the technology be adapted so students with language-based learning disabilities can use this?

My niece attends a private school for children with a wide range of learning differences. I would like to purchase one for her but am not sure how adaptable it will be. Can additional software be installed? The application for this population of student in that school setting would be wonderful. Not only could we provide the assisted technology to help LD students learn, but as well help all children around the world! I am most interested in pursuing this!

Laptop

What items will be inside the shipping box if bought from give one get one?

Protecting children from bad content on the internet

Does the sugar XO system effectively protect children from pornographic or other adult material on the internet and how is it done. Is it possible to circumvent these filters by adding new browser software or in other ways? With geek and source code buttons these children are being encouraged to look under the hood. I feel it of utmost importance to protect vulnerable children from pornography.

See the filtering question above. It seems the countries/schools will be responsible for filtering the internet before it even reaches the laptops. —Joe 20:40, 30 October 2007 (EDT)

Once I order from give one get one, how long is the shipping?

Shipping give one get one

How long is the shipping once I purchase a $100 laptop from give one get one?

We will be setting up a first-come-first-served queue; but until we know the scale of the interest, we won't know the degree to which the volume will impact our production pipeline. We will develop a schedule for shipments and share it with the public as soon as possible.