Talk:Main Page

Things to consider before editing this discussion page:

• 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.
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• Please put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.

Archives : 2006 2007 2008

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

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?

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)

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.

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

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

Chew up some of that precious nand and install gnome-terminal so you can paste those long strings into a shell:

su - yum install gnome-terminal

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!

The wiki looks awful in IE6. 158.59.194.136 10:59, 17 January 2008 (EST)

I can't even log in! 158.59.194.136 10:59, 17 January 2008 (EST)

I have same problem in IE6 / Win2000 SP4 and a javascript error in IE7 / WinXP SP2. -- LeeSI 11:30, 17 January 2008 (EST)

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}}