Talk:Main Page

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Language links

we should include a bar at the top of the page that quickly lets people get to the proper language wiki that they're looking for. maybe we could use a template --Stranger 11:42, 2 July 2006 (EDT) Template:Languagebar

Wikifying the Front Page

'A good place to start is the One Laptop per Child page, which gives an overview of the project. There is a detailed FAQ on the project; and there are numerous pages on Hardware, Software, and Content. There are also discussion pages on issues of deployment and country-specific discussions. An extended Table of Contents is also available.'

Another reason why you should create an account and login

Or see Serel, (I would have made a link here to fastboot.org, but your Wiki refuses my input. I did answer the silly addition problem correctly; it has a bug).

If you'd create and account and login instead of making anonymous comments, you'd not have to answer silly questions. The Captcha is there to cut down on the volume of spam that wikis seem to attract these days.Walter 09:03, 24 June 2006 (EDT)

Recent changes page

Could you consider changing the Recent Changes page please so that more than the last 50 changes are shown? Sometimes more than 50 changes are made in a day so it may be impossible for some of the people who like to follow changes to catch all of them. Could 50 be the default with the user able to select a greater number? Could a criterion of "latest 50 or all changes in the latest two days if greater than 50" be used; that would mean that usually 50 would be displayed, yet more if editing activity has increased.

William Overington 7 April 2006

Hi William. Please consider getting an account at this wiki. Try this link for a longer list of recent changes. -- Mathias Schindler 07:44, 7 April 2006 (EDT)

Who are you guys? Is OLPC a community project?

I saw a pseudo-thread over on here, linked from 'myths':

http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Software_Ideas_-_System_Software#Operating_System_Selection and http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php/Education_Ideas_Esperanto

And it raised my eyebrow. Of COURSE this has to run a flavor of linux, perhaps a really lite flavor, relative to the latest kernel. Proposing otherwise (like using Syllable OS or PalmOS) "contributes" as much to the project as debating whether the native language should be Esperanto. Generous estimate of 2,000 "native speakers"? 100,000 skilled users? There was a lot of text devoted to debating Esperanto. I posit that various editors had to expend more than expedient effort to 'debate away' esperanto w.r.t OLPC.

The http://www.laptop.org/ webspace contains the official project pages. The project management has decided to provide the wiki facility at http://wiki.laptop.org and allow anyone who so chooses from anywhere in the world that the webspace can be accessed to join in discussions and put forward comments and ideas. Some ideas put forward may well not be accepted. People can put forward ideas which might be regarded as highly controversial, yet it is useful for such ideas to be put forward as they have been put forward in a spirit of goodwill for the project to succeed. A different approach could have been to say that an idea will not even be considered unless it is put forward by someone who is an employee of one of the sponsoring organizations. That way some good ideas could have been missed through an unwillingness to assess ideas on their merits rather than on from where they are suggested. It is good that they took the approach that they did. Also, it is a two-way street so to speak. I feel that I have learned a great amount myself by participating in reading from and writing in the wiki. Indeed, I am thinking that that very process may well be an example of the process of constructionist learning which is advocated as part of the project ideas for learning for the children, though it would need someone who knows more about constructionist learning than do I to say whether I am correct in that thinking.

From there, my question: Is OLPC a community project by the editors of this wiki? If not, what is the purpose of this 'pedia? Does Negroponte read these pages?

Well, it is not a 'pedia, in the sense of an encyclopedia, it is a wiki for discussion and idea generation. Two items, discussions of whether to use an operating system other than linux and of the role of Esperanto in the project, were mentioned. Yet there are many ideas which have been put forward by many people in the ideas pages. If only one of them is used by the project then the wiki and the policy of allowing access to everyone will have been of value. If lots of them are used by the project then the wiki and the policy of allowing access to everyone will have been of great value. Once the project has developed, how many aspects of the system and infrastructure that then exist will be as a result of ideas put forward in this wiki?

Yes, if this were truly community-focused, there shoul be Brazilians, Nigerians, Chinese, Thais here now. Let's face it—once the machine is ready, how it is used shall be the least of Project's concerns. It's hardware-power is at least 10 years old, so the people in involved countries can help themselves with the software.

The orange machine

A new picture has appeared on the Main Page.

There appear to be two upward-pointing arms.

It looks as if they may be moveable and would be folded down when the machine is being transported. Is that corect please?

Yes, they fold in to cover the USB ports and to be out of the way during transportation. Walter 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

Do the two upward-pointing arms contain aerials for the WiFi system?

Yes, these are the aerials for the WiFi. Having them rise above the screen will make a big difference in the SNR of the system.

I am wondering as to the health and safety aspects of having these items sticking up in the air when the laptops are being used in a room full of children. However, maybe the arms are just up in the air for showing some aspect of the design in the photograph and would not be up in the air like that when the laptop was being used. What is the situation please?

What is the health issue that is raised by having aerials that raise? Walter 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

I am expressing concern at the possibility that a child (not necessarily the child sat using the machine, perhaps a child walking by in a crowded classroom) might slip and then fall onto a machine and receive an injury from the sticking up item, perhaps a serious eye injury. From the picture, it just seems to me to look dangerous.

Has a health and safety assessment been made of the design, made in the context of using the machine in a room full of children?

We are working hard to make the laptop as safe as possible. Walter 10:44, 10 May 2006 (EDT)

I miss the crank or the replacement of the crank.

It has moved to the power brick.Walter 21:45, 3 June 2006 (EDT)

The power brick.... Could you give a better description.. It just sounds like a removable battery. In that case i don't appeal to it.. The crank gave it a big thumbs up to the ecosystem :-) Yes, doesn't really sound like a battery would be the way to go, unless solar powered. What if the child were to accidentally leave it on? Perhaps you could incorporate an automatic shut down, but I am sure there are ramifications for doing that as well.

There will be several options regarding power. Every machine will include a removeable 5-cell battery pack that is described on the Hardware specification Page. One idea we are pursuing is a "gang" charger at the school. Another, where applicable, would be a conventional AC adapter. Finally, there will be at least two different human-power options: a crank and a pulley system. We've designed the power system to be rubsut in light of third-party solutions as well, which expect will be numerous. Walter 09:18, 16 June 2006 (EDT)

Looking at the design with the two antennae on either side, would it be possible for these to flip open when transporting or is there some means of avoiding this problem? Perhaps having them shut the other direction would allow the bottom, keyboard side of things hold it shut when closed as a simple means of addressing the issue.

A good use for the 3rd laptop...

I mainly use my laptop at home as an X term to my main Linux box. The features of this laptop make it very suitable for this task. So, for $300 you get a nice X term (at least!) and donate 2 to a great cause. And letting my children use it may produce some good ideas for improvement from a child's point of view.

I hope this project takes off and flies high.

If only it were true!

This may well not be the best place to put this comment, but where is a better place?

The web page http://crank.laptop.org/gitbrowse.php has a footer saying the following.

We're putting a laptop in the hands of every child in the world. Learn more!

That is not, unfortunately, true. That is a pity, but nonetheless it is not true.

If, someday, it were to become true, then good, but at the moment it is not what is happening now and thus is potentially misleading to some people reading it.

Packet Forwarding in Reading Mode

I noticed under hardware specs that the wifi chip was chosen for its independent packet forwarding abilities. Does this mean that the laptop will consume power for the wifi chip in reader mode? Will users be instructed to keep the rabbit ears extended while reading for altruistic purposes?

Whenever possible, the laptop will route packets. While it will be possible to turn packet forwarding off, the aggregate performance of the mesh network will be better served if everyone is cooperative. Meanwhile, we are working hard to minimize the power penalty of routing. Walter 18:16, 19 June 2006 (EDT)

Attrition

As someone who has been heavily involved in a one to one initiative, I am curios about your plans for attrition. As you or someone else here stated children are very curios. Some of them will break machines to see how they work or in some cases just break them for fun. There are many reasons the machines will break. I know the price makes them relatively easy to replace compared to other solutions available today. However, no other solution will be implemented on this scale. What is the expected rate of failure and damage per year per 1000 in use devices?

-DK USA

We are assuming that there will be failures for any number of reasons and therefore some to-be-determined number of replacement machines will have to be on hand, however, since the laptop is being designed with harsh use-conditions in mind, e.g., no harddisk to break, minimal internal connectors to fail, sealing against dust and moisture, shock-resistant display, etc. (See the Hardware specification for details), we are confident that the failure rate will be much lower than in other one-to-one initiatives, where laptops designed for other purposes, e.g., office work, are used. The use scenario also comes into play: there is evidence that when children are given machines rather than just given access to them at school, the failure rate is also much lower. Walter 03:08, 20 June 2006 (EDT)

Makes good sense. Children are highly possesive. They are unlikely to damage somtehing that is "theirs". I would certainly reccomend that schools replace computers damaged by accident, but intentional malicious damage shoud require the student to buy a new one, or be required to wait a long time to get a new one, durring which they must barrow one. 24.185.233.39 12:27, 8 July 2006 (EDT)

OLPC Albania

Would it be possible to link OLPC Albania from [1]? I recently saw news that the Prime Minister of Albania had expressed interest in the project, so I wrote a small bit in Albanian. Thanks. Dori | Talk 09:03, 13 April 2006 (EDT)

Done. --Walter

OLPC in India discussion

Please refer to the Talk:OLPC India page.

The Time for the OLPCWiki in Spanish has come...

Y aqui les dejo la primera... página...

Me permito someter a su consideración los siguientes artículos que describen un IMPORTANTE avance tecnológico, que ayudará a cerrar la brecha entre los países pobres y los desarrollados.

La adopción de estas computadoras y su distribución en México, permitirá:

1.- Un salto cuántico en la calidad de la educación al permitir que cada niño, jóven y adulto posea su propia PC con acceso a Internet.

   * Quisiera centrar el foco en que es un proyecto educativo orientado a niños, y no es exactamente un PC conectada a internet. Justamente eso es lo que se pretende que no sea. No es un PC portatil muy barato para el tercer mundo. Es una herramienta facilitadora del aprendizaje, que podra o no conectarse a internet.
2.- Permitirá desarrollar una política de NO EXPORTAR TRABAJADORES, sino IMPORTAR TRABAJOS, al facilitar la realización de trabajos virtuales desempeñados sobre la red.

3.- En Australia, donde las distancias entre los vecinos no se miden en metros, sino en HORAS DE VUELO, los médicos han desarrollado mecanismos para atender a sus pacientes a través de Internet, la aplicación de estas técnicas, podría poner a los médicos de México al alcance de toda la población rural y de pequeñas comunidades, sin necesidad de construir costosas clínicas y hospitales por todo el territorio nacional.

   * Esto se podria hacer pero con otros medios como las redes ciudadanas o wireless, el hardware del OLPC sera una pequeña red con los mas cercanos, y si hay algun punto cercano con conexion a internet, tambien la aprovechará.

4.- Permitirá a los jubilados y discapacitados trabajar desde sus casas, brindando consejos y ayuda a los ciudadanos para sus problemas de...

a) Tareas y Estudio,

b) Domésticos y familiares,

c) Emprendedores y Pequeños empresarios,

d) Tramites y apoyos Gubernamentales,

e) Asesoría en Turismo. y haciendo traducciones, apuntes y otros trabajos.

Todo con cargo a las tarjetas de todito.com de los que requieren ayuda, de lo cual un 15% o 30% queda al organizador y el resto (85% a 70%) se entrega al asesor o tutor.

5.- Desarrollar una industria propia de computadoras, mediante la contratación del la fabricación y ensamble de sus partes en México.

   * Actualmente el ensamble se realiza en China

Gracias por su atención; agradeceré una respuesta franca, breve, clara y práctica a este mensaje, con su opinión y aportaciones, así como la justa oportunidad de participar en el desarrollo de los conceptos expuestos.

Atentamente,

Ing. Dagoberto Gmo. Flores Lozano Consultor en Ing. Industrial y de Sistemas, desempleado. Ex-Investigador y Profesor Universitario, Ex-becario de la Fundación Ford, en Berkeley, Aguascalientes, AGS. MEXICO dagoflores@prodigy.net.mx

German version

Ich vermisse die deutsche Version dieser Seite Jakob Mitzlaff

I have focused this project since mid-2005,at first I don't believe that it can become true,but as many world lead level scientists and corportation joined in this project,new achievement in every course, I do believe it can make this dream true.

I have some ideas to improve the project in China if the product will be finished,and there are maybe many problems facing the fact because China has large area,different culture,how to manage transportation,how to repair,how to train them ,etc,it's real facts.It must be considered before the donation,otherwise it will bring some trouble,I think it is important to establish a small office or to find a cooperative enterprise first.

I heard that Mr.Negroponte will visit our country in couple weeks, it maybe take a blockbuster .I wish I have pleasure to meet him.I hope I can learn from core team ,I try to contribute something .

Interesting interview here (6th April 2006): http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/business/stories/140370.html

Hi Jakob. I have just finished translating laptop.org into German. See the source file at OLPC Germany/translation. -- Mathias Schindler 07:46, 7 April 2006 (EDT)

Let my wiki go!

Protecting half the wiki isn't going to make it grow. Unprotect pages until that specifically becomes a problem. Protect pages by noting that they are maintained by OLPC with a colorful template at the top, not by physically locking the text down. Keep them on a watchlist if you want to see whether anyone comes by and alters some Official Word.

Ahh, much better now :-) --Sj 16:25, 26 June 2006 (EDT)

Typo in first URL link...

fuseproeject.com doesn't exist...

Todo el material referido al proyecto deberia estar elaborado en la mayor parte de idiomas posible. Las brechas idiomaticas en nuestro mundo son una realidad que no podemos olvidar

Jorge Aguirre, de Quito Ecuador, recomienda que el material del proyecto "one laptop per child" se lo divulgue en todos los idiomas que se pueda, ya que la brecha idiomática del mundo actual aun no puede ser superada por la ciencia y la tecnica. 25 de julio/2006 Email jaguirrech@gmail.com

First URL link (www.fuseproject.com) nonfunctional

Please remove the link to http://www.fuseproject.com . It is neither functional with Firefox (1.5.0.4, X11, U) nor with Konqueror (3.5.2). The site immediately wants to open a popup window on Firefox and http://validator.w3.org/ shows 18 errors. This makes the site completely inadequate for the first URL given. --Frief 16:22, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

Your point is well taken. Alas, we don't have any leverage over what these guys do with their website, only the ID they are doing for us on the laptop. That said, I use Firefox 1.5.0.3, and while I don't like the fact that it opens a pop-up window and even though Tidy reports 21 warnings, I can view the site without any problems. I would prefer to err on the side of providing more rather than fewer links to our sources. --Walter 17:10, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

My mail to webmaster@fuseproject.com returned (550 User unknown). I cannot get access an imprint, so I don't know whom else to address there. From what I see with wget the site seems to require popups to be enabled, javascript to be enabled and macromedia shockwave flash to be installed and enabled. If OLPC was to specify a policy for URLs I hope that at least two of these prerequisites are not required. Given that the site deviates pointedly from what would be expected by an Open Source audience I would be surprised if the issues could be resolved within, say, three months. --Frief 19:19, 8 August 2006 (EDT)

How do I get a laptop for my kids?

This sounds like a GREAT project!! I have two kids, ages 9 and 11 and live in the US. I didn't see a 'How to get yours' page, so where do I go to fill out the paperwork?

If these were sold in developed countries for $200 you could give them to children in the developing world for free. I'm sure there would be a large retail market for these, in addition to interest from schools.

Do you really think so? There have been many retail efforts in the past, including [2] and [3] and [4] and [5]. Not to mention that it would be no big thing for schools in developed countries to buy thin clients like these: [6]. I believe whole-heartedly in the OLPC vision (and I'm happy to be on the team), but I doubt very much the claims that there exists a retail market in the US and other developed countries just based on past marekting and sales failures.--JordanCrouse (Talk to me!) 11:53, 15 August 2006 (EDT)

Those are links to toys not PC laptops. Why pretend those machines compete with OLPC? What is the real reason developed countries will not be allowed to build and buy this hardware? -- Ownut

There has been some discussion of selling these in developed countries; primarily a discussion of doing so in bundles, not individually (which is a completely different logistical problem). See for instance The pledgebank pledge, which is aiming for 100,000 signors but has only 3% of its goal to date. Sj 16:17, 15 August 2006 (EDT)

I absolutely agree with the original poster. Like them, the first thing that I thought when I saw this was "How can I get one for my kids, and get one for a needy child at the same time?" My kids would love to think that somewhere in the world a child was able to use a laptop just like theirs, because of them. It seems like a no brainer to me. Set up a web page and charge $200 per laptop. Then make sure that for every one that ships to a developed country, there is one shipped to a developing country. I would also be happy if the laptops are as robust as you describe, because my little monsters seem to break everything anyway. ;o)

Clarification about Higher Resolution than 95% of laptops

Engineer speaking here. While your statement interpreted in one fashion may be OK, your statement isn't exactly true if strictly interpreted in engineer terms, if you are using a patterned R/G/B pixel pattern (similiar to a shadow mask) and addressing them at the subpixel level (It seems you are measuring a pixel as being as an individual R or G or B subpixels, basically using a different yardstick than that used for other laptop displays). While a 1200x900 (individual R or G or B subpixels) display may be claimed as higher resolution than an average 1024x768 (combined R and G and B full pixels) display, a 1024x768 display can be thought of as a 3072x768 display from the perspective of Microsoft ClearType, which uses subpixel antialiasing techniques by using individual R or G or B subpixels of each full pixel, since most LCD displays arrange the subpixels horizontally. Most LCD displays actually have three times as many subpixels as they do have pixels. So when comparing apples to apples, the statement that the OLPC display is higher resolution than 95% of laptop displays, is technically incorrect if thinking using subpixel terminology. However, it can be reworded to clarify that the carefully optimized pixel arrangement (instead of the traditional pixel striping) more easily allow much higher resolution use. Subpixel usage definitely is a creative and clever way to get more out of a display, especially if filtering techniques is done in order to avoid color fringing/color artifacting (a common problem when addressing at subpixel level instead of pixel level). (Note -- I am assuming you are using a similiar pixel pattern commonly used on digital camera and camcorder LCD's which is roughly similiar to shadow mask [[7]], at least a modernized variant thereof. These are traditionally excellent pixel patterns for subpixel-level pixel addressability and maximum sharpness with minimum color fringing using fewest subpixels, and naturally OLPC may have chosen a similiar approach.) Mdrejhon 14:08, 17 August 2006 (EDT)

In reflective mode, our laptop is 200dpi in both X and Y, which is higher resolution than any laptop I've ever seen. --Walter 14:32, 17 August 2006 (EDT)

Various issues

Just 3 things:

1. Unless the same product or similar one can be bought roughly the same price by anyone, and it becomes frequent outside schools, children and schools will be stolen promptly and we'll create a black market.

2. The gap will not be solved so easily, for lack of internet access in poor or remote homes/ areas. Also, I wish these children will get a _safe_ access to the internet.

3. Deals with country governments and mesures at the manufacturing stage must ensure this tool will reach the children with the educational contents provided in their mother language, and within a government-proof container. Otherwise many governments will be just too happy to deculturate children while educating them in some other language. Governments/oragnizations would also be tempted to change the contents to introduce political and religious biases.

Thank you from Barcelona, SPAIN :)