[ale] Last Central Meeting/OLPC

[aaron]

On Monday 21 January 2008 10:54, Charles Shapiro wrote:
> Hey, nice write-up!
(RE: below) 
Yes! Thanks much, Michael!

[snip]

> I thought it was a lively meeting, and it seemed like most people stayed
> awake. I'm waiting to see Aaron's video as soon as the pain and swelling go
> down a bit.
> 
> -- CHS (Presenter)

Besides providing ISO MAG to the projector so the meeting could see the
OLPC screens, I did have tape rolling in the cameras for most of the show.  
Since this is an active topic with interest outside of the Linux world (one 
of the OLPC's and a couple of the people present at our meeting were from
a response to an OLPC thread on the Atlanta "ArtNews" list serve) I expect
to be editing some of this together very soon and posting to Google Video 
and/or YouTube.

Will notify the list when it goes up.

peace
aaron




 
> On 1/19/08, Michael B. Trausch <mike at trausch.us> wrote:
> > It was interesting.  They passed around one of the OLPC units,
> > demonstrated a great deal of the thing's functionality, and so forth.
> >
> > They had four units there and showed off some of the unique-to-OLPC
> > networking tidbits, discussed the fact that system has a
> > crypographically signed kernel, and more.
> >
> > Aaron had cameras there and was able to record the meeting.  I am not
> > sure if those are going to be made available on the web site or whatnot.
> > I would be pretty hard pressed to give blow-by-blow notes or anything
> > like that, but I can summarize a bit of what I learned there:
> >
> >   * The people who created the OLPC believe (much like I do) that
> >     software has grown to be too damn bloated.  The design of the
> >     OLPC emphasizes functional but trim software that people can
> >     use.
> >   * A developer key is required to do many complex things with the
> >     system, including use non-OLPC signed kernels.  I am not sure
> >     just how I feel about that, actually, but looking at it from
> >     the viewpoint of its target audience, I suppose this makes some
> >     sense.
> >   * The thing is durable; one of the units was tossed onto a desk
> >     as one might toss an old college-ruled five subject down onto
> >     the desk, and its owner didn't even flinch.  I suppose you can
> >     get away with doing that with a device like this; I would probably
> >     kill anyone that did that with my laptop computer.  :)
> >   * It is lightweight.
> >   * The user interface takes some getting used to.  It is extremely
> >     non-traditional, though I can see how after using it for a few
> >     days it would become easy.
> >   * The system lacks a lot of the normal functionality of a typical
> >     GNU/Linux box.  It does have up-to-date versions of what is there,
> >     though, from what I could see in the few minutes that I had one
> >     in front of me.
> >   * It probably won't run Emacs.  At least not with all of the
> >     bells-and-whistles (VCS and IDE functionality, for example).  I
> >     made a comment about Emacs and someone replied that "If you got
> >     a network of 23 of these things together..." :-)
> >   * It doesn't have a file manager in the way that we normally think
> >     about such things, though it will import data from and export data
> >     out to USB keys and the like.
> >   * You can use them to find out (within a line of sight, seemingly)
> >     how far you are away from another person's OLPC.  It also seems
> >     that you have to have the machines pointed at each other, and
> >     you also have to give them a few seconds to get a distance reading
> >     that is close to accurate.
> >
> > I am probably leaving out a great deal of things.  I wouldn't want to
> > rush right out and get one to do my work on---hell, the thing won't even
> > hold my home directory (but then again, neither will a USB stick or SD
> > card)---and I would not want to try to typeset things on it, much less
> > try to run OpenOffice.org on it to do homework.  However, it does fill a
> > very much needed spot in a niche, and it is an innovative, not bad
> > looking device that is responsive for its hardware specs.  I would like
> > the chance to play with one more to learn more about it, but I don't
> > have the money to be able to engage in such an encounter.
> >
> >         --- Mike
> >
> > --
> > Michael B. Trausch                                   mike at trausch.us
> > home: 404-592-5746, 1                                 www.trausch.us
> > cell: 678-522-7934                       im: mike at trausch.us, jabber
> > Ubuntu Unofficial Backports Project:    http://backports.trausch.us/