OLPC talk:News

First field test to evaluate network completed this Saturday

This Saturday, professor Luiz Claudio Schara Magalhães and students from UFF's Telecommunications Engineering and Computer Science departments went to Itapuaçu, an oceanic beach in Niterói, Brazil, to run the phase one tests, which include range, throughput and latency between two XO's and one XO and one access point, using the AP standard antenna and an 18dbi omnidirectional antenna which may be installed at schools to extend range. Further tests are planned for this Friday, and results will be posted as they become available.

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Universidade Federal Fluminense is evaluating XO's mesh network implementation

The mesh network evaluation is being done under the auspices of Rede Nacional de Ensino e Pesquisa (RNP - [1]), the Brazilian organization funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Education. RNP is responsible for providing Internet access to academic and research institutions and it is funding Midiacom Labs ([2]) to develop a low cost mesh network solution. Information about the pilot, which provides free Internet access to students in the vicinity of the Engineering Campus at UFF, can be found at [3]. This technology may be used to create the infrastructure to bring Internet access to the Brazilian schools. Current information on the XO's mesh network tests will be found at [4].

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Please add: OLPC-Youth initiative: http://it4yi-wiki.skn.wsinf.edu.pl/YouthandtheOLPCinitiative

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$4 million order from Nigeria, Brazil, Argentina, and Thailand: http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS7131519895.html

The OLPC spokesperson was misquoted: no agreement had been signed. We continue to cooperate with Thailand, Brasil, Argentina, and Nigeria, but no one has committed to purchase laptops nor has OLPC asked anyone to sign a purchase agreement yet. We apologize for any confusion.Walter 21:50, 1 August 2006 (EDT)

Milestone missing

This page has a list of Milestones. Shouldn't it mention this one?

(2006-08-05)

1. We have reached an important milestone this week: the dual-mode now display works in prototype! We have been counting on Mary Lou Jepsen's new approach to LCD displays to help us achieve our price and power consumption targets and enable our expected models of indoor and outdoor use, while also rapidly achieving mass production. We now have a display that can readily be mass produced in standard LCD factories, with no process changes. Our display has higher resolution than 95% of the laptop displays on the market today; approximately 1/10th the power consumption; 1/50rd the price; sunlight readability; and room-light readability with the backlight off.

Costa Rica Press Article

Please add the following press article on Costa Rica's press regarding the OLPC initiative. Includes an interview with Prof. Cavallo.

http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2006/septiembre/05/aldea818336.html

-Adrian Garcia

Mesoamerica
www.mesoamerica.com

Colombia Press Article

http://www.eltiempo.com/nacion/cafe/2006-10-09/ARTICULO-WEB-NOTA_INTERIOR-3277364.html

Libya

The New York Times among others is reporting that Libya is getting 1.2 million laptops along with servers and support, etc. for $250 million. Is this an order, or just an indication of intention to place an order?

An MOU was signed. --Walter 14:17, 11 October 2006 (EDT)

Also the article quoted "Mr. Negroponte" as saying that Windows was not being used for price reasons, which sounded a bit odd. I thought that it was to let the students experament with the OS, etc.

The quote regarding Windows was inaccurate. --Walter 14:17, 11 October 2006 (EDT)

This is also on Al-Jazeera Mx44 11:18, 13 October 2006 (EDT)

Please date news

Please include dates in news items. It is impossible to tell what the pace of development is, or even how hot the latest development is.--Mokurai 04:27, 16 October 2006 (EDT)

The News is updated every weekend. There is a dated archive available at http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news and it is safe to assume anything reported in the current news section is at most one week old. --Walter 17:44, 16 October 2006 (EDT)

I agree with Mokurai. A date at the top of the page showing the date of the most recent news update would be helpful.

Broken Link

Probably at thier end

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100600901.html

6 Oct. 2006 Washington Post | $100 Laptop May Be at Security Forefront

New News item

OLPC received Popular Science's Innovation of the Year Grand Award:
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2006/product_31.html

Kudos.

New York Times

New York Times /2006/11/30/ For $150, Third-World Laptop Stirs a Big Debate

Generic introduction good writing, some quotes, no real news, lots of reader comments.

RSS

I see there's a mailing list about OLPC How about you make some sort of news page with RSS? Right now, my only news source for OLPC is [Christopher Blizzard's blog..] - Luckluster

I agree with providing an RSS feed for this page, with a orange button for easy subscription. It would sure beat having to support the rants and FUD from olpcnews_dot_com to get this information.
- John Pilfor

I third this request! RSS would be a great way to keep up with the project and share update with others! - Paul Russell

There is an excellent OLPC aggregator site with an RSS feed, http://planet.laptop.org/ , but it does not currently include the weekly laptop news that appears here and at http://laptop.media.mit.edu/laptopnews.nsf/latest/news -- Skierpage 00:02, 27 February 2007 (EST)

OLPC Uruguay

Read in the paper version of El Observador (an uruguayan newspaper) in its December 7, 2006 edition (pg 13) about an announcement of the Uruguayan President, Tabaré Vázquez, at the openning of Integra TICs stating that they will hopefully have an OLPC for each child and teacher by 2009 (some 400,000).

Uruguay is officialy participating in the OLPC project with 400.000 units. This was confirmed on December 14th, 2006 by an announcement made by the Uruguayan President (translated version).

Cool! Great news!! Do you know of an official press release? I mean, afaik, the current minimum order is one million laptops, more than twice the number mentioned... are they piggybacking on somebody else's order, or getting enough for 2+ years?

Netiquette-wise, please don't change links, add yours... I'm reverting El Observador's and noting your Observa post here - they seem to be related, but have no clue why they would use two domains... --Xavi 17:07, 15 December 2006 (EST)

Xavi, the newspaper name is "El Observador", but their online site it's called Observa (www.observa.com.uy). They also have MiO (www.mio.com.uy), I don't really know why, but they are all owned by "El Observador". Sorry about it, I changed it because that news article is what you were talking about, the announcement at the IntegraTICs.

English speakers: please improve this article. tuxie_ 20:10 GMT -2, 17 December 2006

AP story on OLPC

Jan 1, 2007: [Yahoo] and [CNN] have an AP wire story about student oriented aspects of OLPC. It also said that the Palestinian territory is scheduled to receive laptops and that more African countries might sign up soon.

I don't know who wrote the comment above, but related to this, why are slashdot and AP/Yahoo! way ahead of laptop.org in news about OLPC? -- David W Hogg 15:53, 1 January 2007 (EST

News Story on BBC news

there is a new story today January 10th on BBC news "$100 laptop could sell to public" 209.82.52.82 13:34, 10 January 2007 (EST)

Contrary to recent reports, OLPC is not planning a consumer version of its current laptop. It will be made available to governments in very large quantities to be given to all children free, as part of their education. Many commercial schemes have been considered and proposed that may surface in 2008 or beyond, one of which is "buy one for the price of two." In addition, OLPC is launching OLPC Foundation later this month, specifically to accommodate the huge goodwill and charity that has surfaced around the idea of a $100 laptop. --Walter 02:32, 11 January 2007 (EST)

New Article for your Wiki-page

Here is an article from Mr. Saffo. He tried out the OLPC and found it wonderful. Well, have a look at the article: "Saffo journal"

Windows & Office for our Laptops? says Bill Gates

Here is an article from ? http://www.itjungle.com/two/two042507-story05.html

says: The digital divide can be a horrible place. On the one side are Westerners who go into withdrawal at the slightest hiccup in their mobile e-mail service. On the other are the majority of Earth's inhabitants, an estimated five billion people who don't use computers, let alone have "crackberry" addictions. To help narrow this digital divide and spread IT's tremendous bounty across a level playing field, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates announced plans last week to sell a software package that includes Windows XP and Office 2007 for only $3.

The Microsoft announcement has resulted in some confusion in the press. It is being suggested that because of the Microsoft announcement, OLPC will be switching from Linux to Windows. On the contrary, OLPC remains steadfast in its dedication to FOSS and has no plans to distribute Windows. However, we have consistant and public with our position that the spirit of openness and freedom; everyone, including software engineers at Microsoft, are welcome to develop for the machine. The fact that Microsoft has been making efforts to bring the price of Windows within reach of children in the developing world gives those children more choices. --209.6.228.166 04:05, 28 April 2007 (EDT)

wrong link in news

Different 'news' same article Media:Technology_Review_Security_Model_Released_for_the_$100_Laptop.pdf

• 12 Feb. 2007 | Silicon.com
• 8 Feb. 2007 | MIT: Technology Review

inclusion of extracted pages

I think it would be better to have the milestones, press & Video of the OLPC pages included here... we can control how much is included or not with the <nowinclude> directives... and then only one version or place to update is needed (instead of two as currently is). I volunteer to do it. --Xavi 11:01, 21 April 2007 (EDT)

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I did the extraction in the News/lang-es and Milestones/lang-es pages to test. Any idea why I shouldn't do it for the english version? (which I assume will impact on other translations too)... --Xavi 01:37, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

I am not sure who split the pages up to begin with. I don't see any reason for it except to keep the size of the page manageable. I you think it won't negatively impact the translation efforts, why not? --Walter 01:55, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

It was getting a bit big that page... I don't mind it being split :)

Anyway, it's done. I think it'll work fine also for translation (although it may be tricky if you don't understand the 'noinclude') the good thing is that translators now have the choice to just use the english version too (summarized) or do the whole thing. It could prove useful for other pages too, specially other 'list-like' pages. Cheers, --Xavi 02:24, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

Laptop News link doesn't always work

The Laptop News link doesn't always work. Sometimes you get a media lab login page. Works upon reloading. Not a new problem - I recall encountering it months ago as well. Perhaps the link should be annotated with 'if it doesnt work, reload'. MitchellNCharity 10:24, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

Thanks for pointing this out. The current news can be found in this wiki: Current events. The archive is for legacy reasons stored on an MIT machine. I will move it when I get a chance. --Walter 11:34, 22 April 2007 (EDT)

AP News article

http://apnews1.iwon.com//article/20070426/D8OOHRL80.html

Apr 26, 5:45 PM (ET)

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - The founder of the ambitious "$100 laptop" project, which plans to give inexpensive computers to schoolchildren in developing countries, revealed Thursday that the machine for now costs $175, and it will be able to run Windows in addition to its homegrown, open-source interface.

Nicholas Negroponte, the former director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab who now heads the nonprofit One Laptop Per Child project, updated analysts and journalists on where the effort stands, saying "we are perhaps at the most critical stage of OLPC's life."

Looks like the AP reporter decided to make money and M$ the lead instead of the meeting. Bob calder

Green laptop?

The May 5 lead item (Green laptop would save tons of power, etc) is so much hokum. If every computer was switched to an OLPC, the world would burn a lot less power but no computer on earth would be able to compile a Linux kernel. Or open and view two web pages AT THE SAME TIME! I also suspect that those power calculations were done based on "projected" power rather than the power that XOs actually burn at this point in time; let's see those calculations, please. Please keep this kind of useless fluff out of the news page.

Your opinion is certainly welcome, but please use less derisive language: "so much hokum." Hiding behind an anonymous post and using such a tone is not within the spirit of a constructive discourse. In regard to your assertions: (1) the Linux kernel can be compiled on the XO; (2) the current browser can maintain multiple open pages, but SUGAR currently only lets you view one at a time (if you want to view multiple windows at one, you can either (a) load a different window manager; (b) use Opera; (c) add that functionality to the browser--it is open source; or (d) wait a few weeks until our tab interface is working); and (3) the estimate is based on actual measurments from our B3 hardware. --Walter 12:41, 9 May 2007 (EDT)

Windows based laptop? Really?

I suspect that it'd be useful to debunk the widespread press coverage saying "the OLPC will run Windows!" The impression I get is that OLPC, Inc will continue to develop a Linux-based software load for the machines. Countries will be free to run experimental Windows ports on it, supplied by Microsoft no doubt, but OLPC won't be running, maintaining, or supporting that software. If there's something different than that going on, please let the open source community know, so we can stop helping you build Wintel machines. If there's nothing different than that going on, please post a prominent clue to educate everyone who believes what they read in the newspaper.

I think this has been "debunked" in the Ars Technica article, among others. And, really, if the open source community doesn't want to help everyone — including people with Wintel machines — they probably shouldn't publish their source code. ;) —Joe 11:14, 8 May 2007 (EDT)

Remove NOTOC tag?

I never noticed the olpc video collection until it was mentioned in a magazine. Never really saw the article's Video section due to a personal "news page gets boring as you go down" heuristic. It may just be me. But, perhaps remove the NOTOC tag? The TOC is short, and not unattractive. Especially if "OLPC PRESS RELEASES" became "Press Releases" (there don't seem to be any direct links to the section). I'd be happy to do the change, but given high profile of the page, it seemed worth talk'ing. MitchellNCharity 10:02, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

Reasonable request. But I do take issue with the assertion that it is "not unattractive." Need to do some skin hacking... --Walter 12:03, 10 May 2007 (EDT)

OLPC News 2007 05 12

Shouldn't Uruguay's section refer to 'Villa Cardal' as the town? Ceibal is the 'local name' for OLPC. See http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com/ --Xavi 14:22, 12 May 2007 (EDT)

3D Human Interface Techniques

Please see an outdated document at http://remedials.org/#11 that fully explans how to produce a 3d human interface system using the onboard camera and a ball... This technique should be implemented as camera code/hardware on the device; we have implemented devices in half XO's cost using a graphics 3d chip controlled system and camera-ball based interface with no other frivilties; easily 8 comfortable humans using any single device.

Can YOU find a ball in a picture?

olpc@remedials.org

I believe that you can do it. What do you do with it? A UI means feedback - just a series of 3d points flowing in one direction isn't enough. Also, this would impact power requirements, probably by a significant amount - keeping the camera on and processing it. Not to be negative, just trying to stimulate the dialogue - how do you imagine using this? Homunq 13:54, 28 July 2007 (EDT)

Removed "Press Releases" section

All the links in the Press Releases section were broken, so I removed the section. The sites may still have the content available under different urls, so if someone wanted to search for it... MitchellNCharity 21:01, 12 May 2007 (EDT)

= Press Releases=

Jan. 2007	OLPC has No Plans (broken link) to Commercialize XO Computer.
Jan. 2007	OLPC Announces First-of-Its-Kind User Interface for XO Laptop Computer.
Jan. 2007	Rwanda Commits to One Laptop per Child Initiative.
Dec. 2006	Low Cost Laptop Could Transform Learning.

Letter to the Editor

Written in response to Technology Guardian (Front Page) - Thursday May 31, 2007 [Which laptop per child?]

From: Jerry Goldstein
To: tech@guardian.co.uk
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 3:11 AM
Subject: OLPC Article May 31st

The articles misses the key issue, which is that the OLPC laptop is, from beginning to end, designed for children and designed to be an educational instrument. It is definitely not designed to be a simple cheap laptop whose basic purpose is to teach children to run Microsoft Office. Thus, the OLPC laptop is ruggedized to withstand serious drops, water spills, heat, dust, high humidity and to operate in extreme climates. It is specifically designed to withstand the abuse a 9 year old child is bound to give it. For every OLPC machine returned for repair or disposal, there would be fifty times as many Intel machines. The OLPC machine can be read in sunlight outdoors, where many children have classes or study, not so the Intel device. The OLPC machine can operate in energy saving black and white as well as colour, can be used as an ebook by swivelling the screen, and is equipped, uniquely, with mesh networking so all children in a village are networked with each other automatically, as well as with their school, and if one child is on the net, they all are. The OLPC machines have security features which may be the best in the world. None of this obtains with the Intel computer.

The purpose of the OLPC machine is to allow children to learn to learn with their laptop, both by accessing educational material on the machine itself, on the school server (also being specified by OLPC), and on the internet. Children who had access to a teacher only sporadically, who have no school books (or one to a class), in climates where books disintegrate, will be able to access all the information in the world from a village with only intermittent electricity, and when that fails, will be able to recharge the batteries themselves. The Intel machine cannot do any of that. For the first time in human history, children with no access to information and education, will be able on their own initiative, to access everything. The power of a village child being able to look up a subject important to him, on say Wikipedia, is unimaginable.

The truth about Intel came out in Mr. Barrett's outburst on 60 Minutes, when he was confronted with his own letter to the government of Nigeria attacking the OLPC machine, and said that's the way business worked. Intel sees this all as a business. OLPC sees it as an educational project, and education being the only way to lift children in incredibly under developed areas, out of poverty. To OLPC, this is a humanitarian project passionately pursued with the commitment to reduce cost to nations as scale delivers savings.Barrett sees it as a business plan.

In the end, Intel vs. AMD is all immaterial, as I am sure OLPC would agree. They key is education, and OLPC has that, and only that, in its DNA. The Intel machine has nothing more than a Wintel ambition to protect the margins of its user base.

Jerry Goldstein
1 Loukianou Street
Kolonaki
Athens 106 75
Greece

Armenia - Help Children

Dear All

I am Samvel Movsisyan from Armenia. I am "Future is Open" educational non-governmental organization's president. We have 90 and more volunteers in our Organization. I learn about your OLPC project. It is really great and big project for human beings. I would like to do this project in Armenian in volunteering basis for Orphanages, Special type of schools, children from street(poor children) and normal schools children. Please if it is possible write me email sam_movsisyan@yahoo.com . For more information about us you can find in our web sites www.fio.am and www.helpthechildren.am .

thanks and God Bless You and Your Big Work.

Supply chain for product line up.

News item 4 of 2007-06-09 lists 5 products to be shipped this fall.

Product 3 is multi-battery charger. Omitted are:

Batery packs. Initial rollout should include at least as many additional battery packs as there are charging positions on each gang charger. Normal mode for charging operations would be for a freshly charged battery to be swapped one for one with a battery that needs to be charged. This should be clearly established as a norm for following reasons:

1. Avoids XO downtime while batteries are charged.

2. Simplifies operations and provides the only effective accountability mechanism protecting against battery theft as particular individuals (teachers and children) are the only ones responsible for handling batteries and both they and the XO owners have a clear transparent procedure. As well as possible resale value, individual children or teachers are otherwise likely to "accidentally acquire" a spare battery with confusion when charging them and may then find it is quite convenient to have an extra battery at home since that will enable longer periods without re-charging.

3. Enables longer and slower charging (due to reason 1). This optimizes Reserve Capacity Minutes of the lead acid batteries because of Peukert's Law

4. When deploying to areas with no electricity at home a plausible norm would be for children to arrive at school with batteries that need charging, swap them for fresh batteries on arrival and swap them again after having heavily used the batteries in full colour mode while at school, to take home freshly charged batteries. This would require larger numbers of gang charger positions.

Over time there will be substantial orders for both additional and replacement battery packs so these should be considered a "product line" with appropriate supply chain management (including suitable markings of both the battery pack cases and individual cells to deter theft, localized if possible).

While I am at it, another product line from the start should be flash ram cards for the MMC/SD slot. Bulk supply chain would be able to provide far better pricing than local retail purchases or even national educational ministry purchases and choice of appropriate sizes and speeds etc based on better understanding of flash ram market trends over time. Again custom markings to deter theft could be useful.

Also please see strong argument for an additional immediate product line, of Teacher XOs with VGA connectors also explained under XO Teachers. (This would just be some batches of ordinary XO-1s with the VGA connector added in the same production line but might require that the injection moulds for cases enable it).

PS 1. "This fall" is a North American english expression less meaningful than a range of months for an international project. I'm assuming this fall means September to December 2007?

2. Typo: the number (4) was missing.

3. The explanation of (4) "Active Antennas" product in the following news item 5 is confusing. What does this mean "use with a mesh portal will double the network throughput"? There should be a wiki page specifically for this product line and the related solar powered WiFi repeater product.

News update 2007-06-16

On item [#3. Taking the heat], wording would seem to indicate that there's a picture somewhere ("but shown is a laptop, ... in the oven night and day.") Is there? (Or am I reading something wrong?) --Xavi 01:37, 17 June 2007 (EDT)

Interested in comments regarding this from Slashdot:

An anonymous reader writes "In a move going largely unnoticed by developers, the OLPC project now requires all submissions to be hosted in the RedHat Fedora project. While this may not seem like a big deal, the implications are interesting. First, contributors have to sign the Fedora Project Individual Contributor License Agreement. By being forced to submit contributions to the Fedora repository they automatically fall under the provisions of US export law. So, no OLPC for Cuba, Syria and the like. Ever."

[5]

I'm no lawyer or OLPC official, but I think the Slashdot article is making a big deal over a non-event. If the U.S. export laws apply to anything from the Fedora repository, then they already apply to the OLPC, since it runs on a modified version of Fedora—never mind any restrictions on the actual hardware. In fact, the export laws probably apply to every philanthropic or commercial enterprise based in the U.S. One might as well bemoan "no Intel microchips for Cuba, Syria and the like," or "no SourceForge software". The OLPC doesn't have direct control over the issue, and changing the host of some RPMs doesn't affect this state of affairs in any way. The "move" is going largely unnoticed because it's irrelevant.—Joe 20:30, 28 June 2007 (EDT)

(1) OLPC does not require "all submissions" to be hosted in the RedHat Fedora project; only those submissions that are to be part of the OS build. Activities do not have to be submitted or hosted in the Fedora project; (2) We are reviewing the CLA and if necessary, we will ask that amendments be made. Can you be more concrete about your specific objections? In regard to the provisions of the US export law, we are looking into it; it is not at all obvious that OLPC can (or should) circumvent those laws. --Walter 20:31, 28 June 2007 (EDT)

Not quite true...

"14. Environmental testing: Four XOs have been running in an oven at temperatures above 45C for a continuous period of 6 days; they are running perfectly. This test is more extreme than real-life conditions, where at night the temperature generally goes down. A room humidifier has been placed in the oven, where is has been running continuously. None of the XOs show any problem."

Actually, varying temperature (and thus dew) is more of a challenge than a constant temperature, esp. for a device that does not really generate much of its own heat.

Lots of great news, though. Keep it up!

http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ out of date

The news archive site, http://laptop.media.mit.edu/ could use an update to its images. All its graphics are showing the early crank prototype instead of the latest version of the XO-1. --IanOsgood 13:57, 16 October 2007 (EDT)