User talk:Felice/Our effect

Impact

how is it fun?

What can my children do to have fun?

Play games, learn, create content, draw, make music, film videos etc Crazybus 19:47, 9 August 2007 (EDT)

Can they install games?

That depends on the game. There are lots of Linux games already out as well as some on the laptop already (See Activities). The hardware is also not suitable for playing the advanced 3d games. Crazybus 19:47, 9 August 2007 (EDT)

My children play an online game. Is that possible on this?

For the most part, yes. Most web-enabled activities run in the browser. There are some games that will not run under Linux (e.g., Shockwave is not supported).

Actually, I saw an XO demo unit recently, and Flash (or some sort of Flash substitute) was working well enough to play videos from YouTube in the web activity. I don't know if the final distribution includes Flash capability, but it seems likely, given that the demo unit did. —Joe 00:36, 10 August 2007 (EDT)

I just tested on my laptop with a base install of build 542 and it has Gnash installed by default. It can indeed play a lot of the flash games though some may not work ()http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash Crazybus 02:39, 10 August 2007 (EDT)

How far does the internet reach?

That depends on your router or wireless provider. If you mean the mesh network then there has been a test of over 2.1km line of sight on flat ground from machine to machine. Of course this would be much less in buildings. Crazybus 19:47, 9 August 2007 (EDT)

I provide free English as a Second Language lessons to students in different countries. My main method of communication is Skype. Will this laptop and its peer-to-peer network be able to handle Skype?

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/VoIP Crazybus 19:47, 9 August 2007 (EDT)

Where are you and your children from as all nations have not recived the laptop yet?--216.194.21.130 17:52, 9 August 2007 (EDT)

A Camera For Education?

I need to know... how does a web camera (or digital camera whatever it so be called) help educate children? Don't get me wrong, I think education is extremely important and I use computers to learn more than I ever learned in school. The OLPC is a great idea with pros and cons like any tool ever invented. However; being a graduate of a Computer Security Investigations diploma and working with law enforcement on the subject of technology involved with online child exploitation, it is evident that yes a powerful and positive tool may be used for most any ill intended act.

What I do not understand is why a web camera is essential in a tool for education. I understand that a large portion of communities who receive this laptop will not have Internet access, but it doesn't take Internet access to exploit children. One camera that can self develop digital photos is just as dangerous as having so many young children prowling through the Internet. I do not see loosing any educational value by removing the web camera from these laptops. The only outcome would be less power consumption, lower cost, and a safer experience for any child. I agree that Internet safety training can help educate children safe Internet use, but even with just community networking, is “safe computer training” really as efficient as removing a piece of this laptop that does not contribute to any educational purpose. D, Canada.

A big part of this project is the idea of the children creating content themselves. And a camera allows them to do this in a large way. Whether it's just filming each other for fun, or creating a video to show others (showing people across the world what your town looks like or a video showing a cow giving birth etc (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOzBTGGVWNg)). The camera only uses power when it's on, and the cost is small due to the improvements caused by mobile phones. I will leave the exploitation question up to others since its late and I must sleep. Crazybus 10:39, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

Any science-fair, nature-observation, or drama project can benefit from a camera, just to start.

As for exploitation, it would be good if you elaborated on what specific threats you see. I'm especially confused by your statement that "it doesn't take internet access to exploit children"; while obviously true, it seems that any such threat (for international profit, or by simply local perverts) would also not need this laptop to succeed. As for other threats: this laptop has extremely high security against traditional "virus" and "spyware"; and its social and sharing features make it relatively likely that willing participation of children in their own exploitation will be caught before it goes too far. Homunq 12:30, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

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Yes! As the saying goes, "A picture is worth a thousand words"... be a picture of yourself, your friends, your house, your pet, or whatever critter may be crawling around that weird plant... great for learning biology and/or botany; being able to capture something (in a picture or video) is a great way to learn about many things: time based pictures that show how a bean grows into a plant, or how the position of the sun changes through the year, and these are just off the top of my head.

I think that there are many more positive (read educational) uses for cameras. A strawman argument is to replace 'camera' with 'pencil': you can write lies, rumours, even poke yourself in the eye with them... but nobody is about to take pencils away from children, are they? Xavi 13:08, 21 August 2007 (EDT)

From maddyj123@hotmail.com maybe sometimes kids want to video tape themselfs or something but i agree why is a camera there but its a use full idea for kids that ill like to purchase one myself for my child!

is it wireless? and what is the operating system?

Yes, it supports wireless networking (802.11b/g). It uses a modified version of Fedora Linux. —Joe 01:51, 26 September 2007 (EDT)

can you watch youtube videos on the green machine?

yes, you can watch youtube but it is very slow, I've tested it both on a B2-1 and B4 with an Adobe Flash player plugin installed on the XO. ~User:Wenmi01

And you can create videos on the XO to post to youtube!!

What about perl? Will this be added? -paul

We opted to use Python as the primary scripting language on the laptop. You can certainly load Perl, but it is not part of the default build.