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[Revolution]

This was posted on the OLPC Development Mailing List by Michael Burns.

Quote
We've had a few questions with the "don't know if this is the right place to post this..." type questions posted to Sugar and Devel the last couple weeks. It turns out, there *is* a right place for most of those questions, and I wanted to tell all the OLPC hackers, volunteers and enthusiasts out there about where that right place is:

The Community Support forum http://olpc.osuosl.org, and accompying IRC channel #olpc-help (with web interface http://olpc.osuosl.org/chat ) on freenode for anyone to ask tech questions and get a friendly, informed answer in real-time.

The site is aimed primarily at G1G1 donors and hobbyists and we are well on our way to building a self-supporting community of users positively contributing back to the OLPC project.

Already, hundreds of questions from users have been answered from wireless connectivity to build upgrade questions to activity use and bug reporting. If support questions come up for you or users you know, feel free to use the forum forum, web chat or the email list as a resource: [email protected]

Other support information can be found at http://support.laptop.org/

Cheers!
--
Michael Burns * Student
Open Source {Education} Lab

Unquote

[dwgsp]

An IRC channel for live support sounds neat.  However, I have never used IRC and I could not figure out how to use the web interface mentioned above (e.g. where in the browser window do I type my question?).  Is there a quick help file that explains how to use this?  The '?' link only brought up a 'file not found' message.

The community support forum also looks useful, but expect to spend some time searching through the questions/answers.  Unlike the olpcnews forum, the support form lumps all XO technical questions into one topic area.

/Don

[rkevans]

http://olpc.osuosl.org/chat/

Type a convenient screen name into the nickname field:  dwgsp   
If you feel like making your real name visible, you're allowed.  Fill it into the next box.  You can even make up a funny 'Real Name'.  To be honest, the 'real name' isn't displayed without a special command, and I don't know of many people who even look.

The screen will fill with a bunch of information, but none of it is really important to you for now.  You may have to use the scroll bar on the right to move down to the active area.

At the bottom of the screen will be a place to type, followed by a [Say] button.   Just type a question there and press enter or click on the [Say] button.  In about a second, your question will appear in the large text box.

Example:          dwgsp:   Excuse me, I'm having a problem with my touchpad.

Typically, you should see a response from somebody within a minute or so.  If you don't, watch the screen for a little while.  If two people are involved in a discussion, they might delay getting to your question.   Wait for it to get a little slower and ask again.  They're not ignoring you on purpose.  Sometimes it's easy to miss a question...  I'm guilty of doing that myself.

Rick

EDIT:   I just tried using it again, and I'm not a big fan of that web interface.   if you find another IRC program, the magic  config settings are:    irc.freenode.net      and  #olpc-help  .

[Infamy]

Might I also suggest the support wiki? http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support_FAQ

It has a ton of good stuff.

Cheers,

Infamy

[dwgsp]

http://olpc.osuosl.org/chat/

Type a convenient screen name into the nickname field:  dwgsp   
If you feel like making your real name visible, you're allowed.  Fill it into the next box.  You can even make up a funny 'Real Name'.  To be honest, the 'real name' isn't displayed without a special command, and I don't know of many people who even look.

[...]

At the bottom of the screen will be a place to type, followed by a [Say] button.   Just type a question there and press enter or click on the [Say] button.  In about a second, your question will appear in the large text box.

Example:          dwgsp:   Excuse me, I'm having a problem with my touchpad.

Typically, you should see a response from somebody within a minute or so.  If you don't, watch the screen for a little while.  If two people are involved in a discussion, they might delay getting to your question.   Wait for it to get a little slower and ask again.  They're not ignoring you on purpose.  Sometimes it's easy to miss a question...  I'm guilty of doing that myself.

Rick,

Thanks for the info.  If I understand correctly, I should type my questions into the bottom of the screen.  Also, you mention a nickname field but I can't find it, unless it's the field on the right side of the screen (and if so, where would I type my nickname?).

The sad part is that this interface is definitely not designed for newbies, and those are the folks who need it the most.

/Don

[Wanda]

http://olpc.osuosl.org/chat/

Type a convenient screen name into the nickname field:  dwgsp   
If you feel like making your real name visible, you're allowed.  Fill it into the next box.  You can even make up a funny 'Real Name'.  To be honest, the 'real name' isn't displayed without a special command, and I don't know of many people who even look.

The screen will fill with a bunch of information, but none of it is really important to you for now.  You may have to use the scroll bar on the right to move down to the active area.

At the bottom of the screen will be a place to type, followed by a [Say] button.   Just type a question there and press enter or click on the [Say] button.  In about a second, your question will appear in the large text box.

Example:          dwgsp:   Excuse me, I'm having a problem with my touchpad.

Typically, you should see a response from somebody within a minute or so.  If you don't, watch the screen for a little while.  If two people are involved in a discussion, they might delay getting to your question.   Wait for it to get a little slower and ask again.  They're not ignoring you on purpose.  Sometimes it's easy to miss a question...  I'm guilty of doing that myself.

Rick

EDIT:   I just tried using it again, and I'm not a big fan of that web interface.   if you find another IRC program, the magic  config settings are:    irc.freenode.net      and  #olpc-help  .

I just want to know how the Hell do get the keys unlocked and use the internet?

[rkevans]

If I understand correctly, I should type my questions into the bottom of the screen.  Also, you mention a nickname field but I can't find it, unless it's the field on the right side of the screen (and if so, where would I type my nickname?).

Don

Holy user interface Batman!  I just tried it on an XO (the instructions above assumed a Windows machine w/ IE or a linux machine w/ Firefox).

Yes.  You have to put the cursor into the unmarked space at the bottom of the screen, and hit ENTER to send the message. 

The Nickname field is on the first screen from the link I posted ( http://olpc.osuosl.org/chat/ ).  I'm going to make a wild guess here and assume you just pressed the Login button.  That will work, and you'll be assigned a random nickname such as     XO-82.

Rick

[Kityoko]

The sad part is that this interface is definitely not designed for newbies, and those are the folks who need it the most.
/Don

That is very true.
Great idea, but the interface is forbidding. As someone who's never used IRC, it took me a while to find the tell command after I was sent a message. At least, I assumed it was a PM, as their name was in color. Then the PM I tried to send back was blocked, as my name isn't registered. Having several conversations going was more confusing than helpful.

Great for IRC folks, great for people willing to do some research, not good for newbies. I did very much appreciate everyone's willingness to answer questions though!

[Revolution]

Perhaps Wayan needs a 'Chat' application that is easy to use.
I've always used X7Chat but not sure how it will look on the XO.

What say Wayan?
Should I set up a Live Chat for you?

[Wayan Vota]

Well this forum can support a Shoutbox - its own version of chat.  I just wonder about its usefulness as the comments are not recorded, so any knowledge exchanged on it is lost.

[sherryh]

I think chat would be great. not every exchange needs to be saved forever.

[sckTtman]

Hello,

I will be assisting in an evaluation of an OLPC pre-pilot soon. As part of our data collection, we want to track how the XOs are being used. Essentially, I would like to find a way of "harvesting" each of the XOs journals each day, so as to then examine which activities being used. I am looking for a fast way of exporting the Journal as an image that can be looked at later ( I do not need to store the activities themselves, I just need to know what the user had been doing). Can anyone think of a way to "harvest" journals and suggest an easy way to go about doing it and storing the data?

Many Thanks!