Chronology

G1G1 donor 2007
Introduced to OLPC via Lilug (sp. by J5's demo at LILUG)
XO received on 2008/Mar/21 and it survived graduate school
(a bit dirty and the battery life's reduced a bit, but otherwise intact)
2010/Mar/01: Overhauled this page.
2010/Jun/09: Added an install note for booting Fedora 11 for XO-1 (build 13) from an SD card.

Tricks and Techniques

2009-09-03
Battery stopped working, but the XO still functions on AC adapter.
2010-01-07
Battery springs back to life of its own accord. I have no idea why.
2010-03-25
Battery again stops working. Since the XO has been unplugged and unused for the last three weeks, it's possible that the battery has discharged to the point that the XO cannot recognize its presence. Leaving the XO on and plugged in seems to have cured the battery detection problem, but the underlying cause remains unconfirmed.