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)

The format for expressing dates

I notice that the Community News (not a wiki page) has the date as follows.

OLPC News (04/08/06)

In England, that would often be taken to mean 4 August 2006, on the basis of moving from smallest unit (day), to larger unit (month) to largest unit (year) whereas the intention from America is clearly 8 April 2006.

Interpretation as an August 2006 date for the news document would clearly be obviously wrong at this time, yet in the future, for a historian reading through the news items, ambiguity could occur.

I wonder if I could suggest please that there be specified a consistent and unambiguous way of expressing all dates in the documents of the project.

For example, 2006-04-08 would convey the date unambiguously.

However, month names like April can help, though the English way of writing day month year, leading for this example to 8 April 2006, does look more typographically balanced than would the American equivalent of April 8 2006. However, that could produce problems for someone whose first language is not English, or indeed for someone whose first language is English if the document and thus the month name is not in English. So maybe using the yyyy-mm-dd format might be the best for an international multilingual project.

William Overington

10 April 2006

I Agree strongly See International standard date and time notation. (Doing this for the tilda tags would be good too) 82.133.105.218 08:34, 10 April 2006 (EDT)

Thank you for the link. I have been using GMT for times for years: it appears that that went in 1972! The Z seems a poor choice, easily confusable with a 2. Maybe a U or a lowercase z would be better. So, this message is produced at 2006-04-10 1302Z. William

The Perfect choice: 2006-04-30, as it has the additional property of be ready to be sorted..., A series of fields of dates can be sorted properly without the strange results of sorting dates in other formats... Just a mess... ¿no?... Mexico / Ags./Dagoflores (also from larger to smaller)

Feedback on OLPC News (2006-05-06)

Item 3 is as follows.

3. Mark Foster hand-carried the first three pre-A-Test prototype OLPC electronics boards to Cambridge this week. Together with Michail Bletsas, Chris Blizzard and the Red Hat team, they brought up the mini-Fedora distribution. This means that we now have a stripped-down distribution that will boot and run off a USB key, somewhat similar to the actual requirements of the real hardware.

Feedback.

pre-A-Test prototype OLPC electronics boards

What does "pre-A-Test" mean please? I have heard of beta tests and I am not entirely sure what that means. Could you possibly explain the testing sequence please?

pre-A-Test boards are essentially untested boards; A-Test boards are debugged manually; B-Test boards are tested automatically--the last step towards manufacturing. We are pulling a few pre-A-Test boards just to accelerate the software development process. The good news is that these boards are working with few if any modifications, a testiment to the skill of the Quanta Team and Mark Foster from OLPC. Walter 11:25, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

to Cambridge

Is that from Taiwan?

yes Walter 11:29, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

boot and run off a USB key

I have found from wikipedia that one meaning of USB is "Universal Serial Bus".

What does "key" mean here please? I am thinking that the whole sentence is about that in the event of a laptop having a software crash that the whole operating system can be rebuilt by attaching something (the "key") to a USB port of the laptop and then proceeding in some way. Is that correct please?

From Wikipedia[1]: USB flash drives are also known as "pen drives", "chip sticks" (though very uncommonly), "thumb drives", "flash drives", "USB keys", and a wide variety of other names. Walter 11:17, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

Could you possibly elaborate on what happens please and how, once the laptops are deployed, a child would proceed in order to rebuild the operating system in the event of a total software crash. I am thinking that it would need to be fairly straightforward yet something which could only happen with deliberate action, not by accidently pushing a large reset button or anything like that.

We have a goal of easy restore and upgrade and are working on the scenarios. The goal is to distribute upgrades to school servers and then use the peer-to-peer network further distribution. We will have some sort of "trust" scheme--to be determined--for authentification. Walter 11:17, 7 May 2006 (EDT)

Thank you for providing the further information.

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)

OLPC Albania

Would it be possible to link OLPC Albania from [2]? 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.

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.

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.

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)