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[Volkspeed]

Ours arrived this morning in Surrey. Fedex left it by our front door.

I'm interested in getting together with others in the lower mainland area to "Mesh" around with it...

James

[goliath]

Afternoon of Feb 16 sounds good, hope I have an XO by then!!

Some possible locations: http://vancouver.wifimug.org/. Don't know about the beer Hopefully close to skytrain/transit.

[Barbara]

Mine arrived this afternoon. I got it for my 6-year-old son, and will give it to him tomorrow. I want to see how much of the unpacking and setup he can do for himself, so I'm keeping my hands off it until then. But I can't wait! I would love to get together with a user's group if I can borrow it from him. Are there any other kids in Vancouver who will have one?

[Matt_Yun]

My 8 year-old daughter and I just unpacked ours.  She figured out how to open it in less than a minute.  After seeing her work with the Sugar UI, I understand why they designed it that way; it's intuitive for a child.  I also see why they used the Journal paradigm, rather than the folder/file, because that is how a child thinks.

If we can actually make a get-together happen, I suggest a Cactus Club in the afternoon (thanks for the vancouver.wifimug.org link).  Should we bring our kids?  Since Lorri intends to come on the ferry from Victoria, maybe we could book the Cactus Club in Richmond.  I think it's accessible from the 98B. 

[Volkspeed]

Cactus Club in Richmond sounds good.  My son (10) owns the XO, so I vote to bring the kids.  It would be nice to see them interact with the computer and each other.

James

[Matt_Yun]

In case anyone is interested, today we bought an 8GB SD card for $65 from expc.ca (in the Crystal Mall, next to Metrotown).  We also bought an 8GB USB keydrive for $45 from the same place. 

We upgraded to Build 653 to access our WPA1 wireless network, and installed mplayer.  I'm resisting Opera for now, to see how my daughter uses the default Browser.

[DoubleK]

I got mine last Friday and have been playing with it since, first upgrading to Build 653 which was a breeze to install (and fixes some issues), then installing and booting Ubuntu on a SD card.
(Upgrade to Build 653 page: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activated_Upgrade)
(Installing Ubuntu on XO page: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1436.0)

I had problems connecting to wireless access points that are WPA-Passphrase protected.  Even Build 653 didn't solve my problem on my problematic Linksys WRT54G, however, Ubuntu did.  Ubuntu is also very fast and is more familiar to adult users who are somewhat XP-menu-oriented and need business apps.

If there is a meetup, I would love to get together and see how Sugar and the mesh network function in some of those applications.  And a worthwhile gathering to share issues and possibilities with the XO.

[kjmain]

Up  and running here  in Vancouver.

[pauche]

My XO laptop is waiting at home for me.

Fedex didn't even ring a doorbell;  I received an email notification from Fedex 30min later then I called home to ask for someone to check the door.

[bc]

Matt_Yun- you mentioned buying both an 8GB SD caed and an 8GB USB stick. Which do you find performs the best in the XO?

[Matt_Yun]

Re:  Performance of 8GB usb drive v 8GB SD.  I can't tell the difference in performance.  The SD card is to expand the internal memory, for stuff like photos.  The 8GB usb drive is for file transfers, and for videos.  They play fine from mplayer.

Re Build 653.  We haven't had a lot of difficulties with connecting to our WPA1 network (Linksys WRT54G v. 3).  The only quirk is that you have to connect to the network from the "neighbourhood" before you do anything else.  The other quirk with Browser is that you have to start it from the Journal if you want to retain your bookmarks.

As for the Journal, it hasn't been a problem for my daughter.  I'm starting to think that it really is more intuitive for a child rather than the "folder" paradigm.

If I ever feel lost with Sugar, all I have to do is go into the Terminal, and it's just like I'm back home.  I showed the XO to some co-workers today, and they were most impressed.

[bc]

Re:  Performance of 8GB usb drive v 8GB SD.  I can't tell the difference in performance.  The SD card is to expand the internal memory, for stuff like photos.  The 8GB usb drive is for file transfers, and for videos.  They play fine from mplayer.

Thanks - that's good to know. I am planning to install Xubuntu on either a USB memory stick or SD card and wasn't sure which one performs best in the XO. Just to clarify, the 8GB USB stick is just a memory stick and not a USB drive - right?

- Bill

[pauche]

posting from the xo.

installed opera and  slowly learning the activities. so far it has been a great experience using and learning.

[svcat]

February 16, Richmond  Cactus Club sounds like a good plan to me! Likely with partner in tow: he got my XO talking to the network so I'm posting with it.

Had the mostly-white cat next to me up until a minute ago. Sort of co-ordinates, and he was cheekrubbing the green ears.

[jerpenner]

Cactus Club sounds good by me.  I will have a couple spare XO's around to play with.