User:Rostauber

OLPC, you can ignore my email the day after I opened my XO-1. Somewhere in Wiki I thought I read my G1G1 XO-1 was "no longer supported". I emailed for help commenting i felt a little had. Also the XO right off had struck me as tedius in crucial areas ... which frustration I am dutifully overcoming. Naturally we USA softies are concerned about a program determined to put third-world children at a console and cruising the net and funding violent games and porn rather than learning to spear lizards for the pot ... and soccer of course ... in their own real communities and families. It's a toss-up how to imagine things. And their little eyes will suffer. But be that as it may, I feel OLPC people on the ground anywhere will be all to the good regarding progressive efforts of all sorts.

As my little XO-1 works its magic and I am constantly in wiki and went further than expected in Forth lessons one afternoon, let me say I do not intend to spend my remaining years with code. I want to participate however, and I prize these early hours and stages of understanding based on use of the XO-1, and of course wiki and the Community ... what any child or adult would find of most interest, and indispensible to my own usefulness. I am getting to love the keyboard but when the ERASE key gets stuck watch out if you're editing! Why not glo-in-the-dark keys and also the board lit by a single little led? Maybe the XIO can jump cars.

With no power management until January sometime I use hi-contrast lit up one notch. I'm getting shortcuts down. No "alt-left-arrow" to backup and no "alt-right-arrow" to go forward? And what made me think I was getting a touch-screen when I sent off $400 plus? Makes the tablet and wi-fi incentive vanish. Oh and send me a couple of those $10 batteries please. Why can't ERASE delete in every context? And a manageable "Favorites" that survives re-boot. The drop-down list with BACK is nice but I look forward to the Microsoft SD. Glad I made a USB Key.

Just introducing myself. At 71 my short term memory sometimes leaves me blank on what I had just thought to do, sometimes having to do with what I wanted to think about but miost often I notice it when I turn to get a tool or check some thing or some process that comes to mind, when I am doing the physical things which all these years fed me ego and self-esteem. It will be interesting to see if by navigating wiki and becoming adept with XO-1, let alone doing config in Terminal ... if I will see a reduction in these momentary looses of focus.

I was slow figuring out "Mode" back in DOS. Then never used it. I always enjoyed showing kids how a little d.bat and c.bat file on their root or path could turn them into computer geeks instead of just being game goons. I always fought for the PC in schools rather than the Apple as the keyboard shortcuts and command approach took the kids into the computer in a way the mouse with all its separation and delay of thought did. As Book and Audio-Visual Clerk at a public HS right as the IBM XT hit the scene when nobody knew much about anything I had the time and the manuals where the teachers had a classroom of testy kids and was able to get onto Lotus pasting up in the halls updated lost-book lists so students would see their lost book had been returned to inventory and would save $20-35 by showing (from my records) that their book was not lost but had been returned to inventory at which time they could get a new book free. School administration didn't like it 'cause once a year when the kids checked out it brought in quite a bit of cash. Eventually I became responsible for school-wide inventory worksheets and reports.

So much for the past. What I want to do is participate. My little neighborhood is filled with clubs and restaurants. There's another casino and hotel downtown on the river. Soulard is gentry-fying quite nicely thank you ... more and more infants and the grandparents with them in the coffee house on weekends, most of the dogs on leashes, lotta laptops. A quarter-million people parade around Soulard MO and debauch themselves in front of my properties once a year during Mardi Gras. I have a great location for sales, advertizing, petition-signing, exposure of breasts ... once a year for several days. I have the time, the well-situated commercial and residential property with space therein, to incubate a little OLPC start-up and copy-shop and a co-op too. I presume OLPC is largely self-starters who manage their own shit as well as a mix of well-intentioned dreamers ... and oh do I have a lot of good shit I've intended to start eBaying for years now ... good stuff I won't list here ... which could easily make good suitable learning activity on the XO, would supply cash and make new space at the same time, give people experience in how to make their way financially in a made-thing glutted part of the world, as our little starter group seeks to justify, support and debug itself.

I like the idea of a rubber case. Dark grey would be nice. AND an alarm do-dad to locate one's own XO in a pile of 'em. I'm old now and there's less reason for me to get excited about the world. I think how hopeful we are regarding its "correction" in youth and during most of our lives. I'll leave the religious opportunity alone for our private spaces. If home-front citizens take a role in OLPC activities starting with their own hands-on XO as a learning tool, even keeping up each in their own way with code development, it would probably encourage a more realistic confidence in the Project. Still singing to the choir, as various modes of resistance and corporate sabotage arise intentionally or not, we oldsters, the teens, and all in-betweens becoming connected and knowledgable about the hardware and up-date processes as on-the-ground XO classes emerge and learning are designed around them ... this could well be the crucial factor in not only the long-term survival of this Project but the very availability of eager and able fresh new faces, with a chance of converting do-gooder dreams into their own boots-on-the-ground contribution ... and to children, which is where our hearts so easily find a worthy target.

Hopefully free-laptops-to-all-students will sweep the world as recycled computers leach out of the landfills and turn up on courtroom tables. XO could one day be a Smartphone by Palm or Nokia, wireless to the TV, with a roll-out (like a curtain) keyboard as well as smaller input pad. I was delighted to make my own USB Key and restored 650 for a while then updated to 653. Is 653 stable or just official? MUCH easier to make that USB Key on my XP desktop thank you. Hey how about some ram? Just trying to drum up OLPC activity in STL. Oh and I've got a couple of IT employed geeks as tenants and neighbors and in my immediate family.

A guy on eBay claims his XO-1 will USB to a printer. No, right? A single XO-1s bringing under $300 regularly on eBay. That's going to be a major source for non-G1G1 and when the price hits $150 I'm going to get two or three or a bunch more. All my friends are curious. But its not just any kids laptop anymore. Some folks are eager to make the donation scene. Part of being green.

I'll have to learn to config in Terminal. What a drag. Forth is rough without prior experience in assembly language and syntax. Where'd they get the name? Go forth and multiply? Have to re-wiki and vcheck that spelluing. Fourth or Forth? May not get back to Forth for a while. I'll shut up now.