One Laptop Per Child News

Three weeks ago today, I announced the OLPC News Forum for XO laptop exploration to provide help and support for G1G1 donors to One Laptop Per Child.

My goal was quite modest - help those who Got One to:

1. learn and explore clock-stopping hot technology,
2. share their experience with others,
3. and organize local user groups.

I expected a few hundred people at most, the motivated geeks who supported OLPC from its inception. The OLPC News Forum has grown beyond all expectations!

As I type this, there are 990 topics with 7,701 posts by 1,189 members in just 21 days. That's an average of 340 posts per day on everything from XO laptop help to local user groups to promoting OLPC in schools to the Canadians who are still waiting for their XO's.

And with 51 new registrants every day, the Forum continues to grow and change. Just this week we added boards on music activities, the dual mode screen, and a NYC XO user group.

So what are you waiting for? Register today! You'll be glad you did.

Tags: Doom | G1G1 Donors | Laptop Help | NYC XO | OLPC News Forum | User Groups XO-1 | XO Laptop Help |

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So, I was a first day donor (bought online about two hours in) and finally got my XO this morning... and it is DOA! No lights, no power.

Like many of us, I've been reading the blog posts from folks who'd gotten theirs already, and I've been dying to get my hands on one. You can only imagine the horror as it slowly set in that I wasn't doing anything wrong, but that my XO was actually completely non-functional (no charge lights or power up or errors, no activity at all).

It turns out, to the best of my knowledge, that mine is the first brick that's been reported to OLPCNews. Not a distinction I'd like to have, but there it is. After the initial fury/disappointment, I remembered that this is a charity organization, and I started to understand why they were hesitant to sell to consumers in the US.

Understandably, they don't really have the infrastructure for consumer support since they're not a commercial organization, and the usual anger I'd have for tech- support on a bricked product melted away a bit at that thought, I felt a sort of peace.

I was on hold for about 50 minutes with OLPC support (the hold music is a 4 minute loop, but at least it's not Christmas music!), and got a volunteer that had me try the standard things (reseat the battery, power on without the ac adapter, etc), before taking my information and telling me that a technician would call me back at some point.

Due to the grass-roots nature of the project, I'm resigning myself to the fact that a replacement is most likely a long way off, and that it most likely won't be here before Christmas. But, it's about the kids anyways, right?

As long as the donated-half of my order gets there fine, I can wait a while. And considering that I'm the first report of a brick, they're still doing a pretty great job.

My XO is dead. Long live the XO!

If you think you can help Charles Hoey, then follow up with him in the OLPC News Forum

Tags: Charles Hoey | DOA | Laptop Support | OLPC | OLPC Delivery | OLPC News Forum | XO | XO Battery | XO Brick |

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