One Laptop Per Child News

G1G1 2008 XO Laptops Need a Sugar Upgrade Already

(Wayan Vota) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:46:07 -0500

Upgrade to Sugar 8.2.0 now!

Contrary to previous statements, One Laptop Per Child is not shipping XO laptop with Sugar Release 8.2.0. Thanks to tvoverbeek's explorations we've just learned that OLPC is shipping G1G1 2008 XO's with Build 708, aka 8.1.

Now why might that be? Ed McNierney says:

This year it was extremely important for us to have Amazon stocked with inventory so orders could be fulfilled and delivered right away, the first day of the program.

That meant that manufacturing actually had to begin before 8.2 was released; the machines being manufactured now have 8.2 built in, but the first G1G1 buyers will be receiving the first manufactured machines.

Sadly, I do not think OLPC is telling the donors who receive the Build 708 machines that they need to upgrade their software. Nor does the wiki differentiate between different G1G1 releases for help and support. And woe the poor Support Gang crew who starts emails to frustrated XO owners with "First, you'll need to upgrade Sugar..."

The only consolation for the G1G1 2008 first run donors? Upgrading is easy (directions) and Sugar Release 8.2.0 rocks!

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Charlie Rose interviews Nicholas Negroponte

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:22:09 -0500

In our ongoing series of bringing you the latest videos about OLPC we found a very interesting interview by Charlie Rose who talked to Nicholas Negroponte about the current state of OLPC, G1G1 and Negroponte's vision for the future.

The 12min interview touches upon a lot of interesting topics such as cultural imperialism, being "anti-school" (or not) and how every child having a laptop would change the world.

Definitely a great interview with lots of food for thought and the potential for many discussions. The first one: How would every child on the planet having a laptop change the world?

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Charlie Rose Nicholas Negroponte OLPC One Laptop per Child interview video

XO Laptop Give One Get One 2008 Buying Guide by OLPC News

(Wayan Vota) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 10:15:51 -0500

Thanks to the OLPC News Forum, we now have the XO laptop G1G1 2008 Buyers Guide for Amazon shoppers from American and Europe to help direct donors and parents to their best way to participate in One Laptop Per Child.

Overview:

Loving Parents: the XO laptop is a Leapfrog on steroids, the best way to excite your child to learn and explore.
Computer Geeks: this is your chance to show how Linux can change the world.
General Consumers:: depending on your expectations, this may or may not be the best Christmas gift of 2008

The XO Laptop is Perfect For:

Loving parents of young, primary school-aged children

Oh my! How the XO laptop can captivate your child's attention and have them learning and exploring all manner of subjects, without them even noticing - its amazing. All the field reports and even USA parents agree that for a young child, say kindergarten through 5th grade, the XO laptop will have them:

Learning language and spelling with XO Speak
Learning logic, math, and object manipulation with Squeak
Just having a good time with the camera and video

Children will have even more fun if there are other XO users nearby, be they other children with XO's or a parent (or two) with their own XO's. The XO laptop is designed to be used with other XO's and the mesh network it forms also teaches children collaboration and sharing.

Computer geeks excited about a game-changing Linux platform

For the FOSS crowd, the XO laptop is glorious. With an almost 100% Open Source computer, OLPC has created the best showcase for Linux to break out to widespread adoption in the education sector. As an open machine, the XO laptop can also run multiple operating systems and software, from Ubuntu to Drupal. And with help from the OLPC News Forum, you can:

Meet up to mesh across the globe with other XO users
Run XO Chat on the iPhone to wow friends
Develop assistive technology for those challenged by sight, movement, or mentality.

Of course, you'll also be turning heads at coffee shops, airports, and conferences with the coolest hardware ever.

General consumers who want to experiment with computer technology

If you want to explore computer technology, and are wiling to learn a bit of python and are brave enough to use the command line, then you'll find the XO laptop a resilient platform for experimentation. The Linux operating system has a python-based user interface, Sugar, which those in the know tell me is quite malleable and forgiving. Best of all, if you really mess up on the software side, you can just reboot Sugar off a flash drive and start afresh. I can personally attest to the hardy physical form factor with these videos:

The XO laptop is the only computer that I would even think about putting underwater and at the same time, the only one I have a hope of repairing after I did. And drunk, no less.

The Disappointed XO Laptop Buyers:

General consumers looking for a "$100 laptop" - a cheap business laptop - that can replace a Macbook for daily use

The XO laptop does have clock-stopping hot hardware that seems ot be great for adult computer users. From the dual-mode screen, to the mesh networking and instant suspend & resume, OLPC has created a set of functionality that has business slaptop makers changing their product plans. Yet be aware that the XO needs changes to do business tasks:

It does not print - you need a serious hack to add printer drivers
It does not use standard file types - you will need to hack to share files
There is no direct product support - you will need to make your own hacks

That said there is a vibrant adult XO user community that can help you through these steps. Just be sure you really want to deal with the DIY requirements.

In fact, if you want a cheap business laptop, may I suggest the ASUS Eee PC 1000H.

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Adult XO Users Amazon XO Sales Christmas Gift G1G1 2008 OLPC G1G1 XO Laptop Buyer Guide

One Laptop per Child's Mission in 98 seconds

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:24:06 -0500

From all the videos that OLPC has released as part of their Give 1 Get 1 2008 marketing efforts this one strikes me as the best one so far. It basically manages to explain OLPC's mission and goals in 1 min 38sec and does it all with a lot of style.

I'll definitely keep a link to it at hand because it's a great place to send peope to for a first primer on what OLPC is actually all about.

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G1G1 Give 1 Get OLPC goals marketing mission video

Subscribe to OLPC News via RSS, Email or Twitter!

(Wayan Vota) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 12:30:37 -0500

Are you in the G1G1 know? Can you name all the OLPC Countries? Do you wonder if you've missed breaking OLPC news? Then be smart, be quick, be subscribed to OLPC News!

You have three rather simple options to keep up with all One Laptop Per Child activity:

1. You can subscribe via RSS using your favorite feed reader:

2. Or you can get crazy and subscribe to OLPC News via email:

Enter your email address:

3. Newest of all, you can follow the OLPC News action via our Twitter feed. Interspersed between updates from the blog, are direct Tweets just for the Twitter subscribers.

No matter which way, you'll get OLPC news as it happens from the global community focused on the One Laptop Per Child project and empowering children's education with technology, in the developing world.

Email Subscription Feed Reader OLPC News One Laptop Per Child News RSS Subscribe

Create a G1G1 commercial and win a national TV spot!

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 07:27:27 -0500

Dailymotion announced what I consider to be an awesome contest this week: Until December 15 you can submit a 30 or 60 second promotional video for OLPC's Give 1 Get 1 marketing campaign. The prize for the best spot is quite impressive:

30/60 seconds of fame anyone?

Submit your Give One Get One commercial for a chance to win a national TV spot! This an amazing opportunity for you to “give back“ during the holiday season and have the chance for even broader exposure of your creative work.

While unfortunately only US residents are eligible for prize consideration, I still think this is a great idea to motivate people to produce some cool videos. Moreover Dailymotion specifically encourages young creators to participate:

You can be as creative as you want! But remember, the commercial should be kid friendly. In fact, kids are encouraged to participate, along with the guidance and support of a parent or legal guardian. For prize consideration, all submissions must be 100% original, please do not use copyrighted images or music.

If this sounds interesting to you then head over to this Dailymotion page and definitely let us know (via a comment below or the forums) in case you actually submit a video.

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Dailymotion OLPC TV spot contest promotion videos

Tom Brady's Give 1 Get 1 videos

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:08:57 -0500

I admit it, before hearing his name in connection with OLPC's G1G1 campaign and looking it up on Wikipedia I had no idea who that Tom Brady fellow was. But I now understand he's some kind of ~~soccer~~ American football player or something. ;-)

Anyway, OLPC did a quick video with him as part of promoting Give 1 Get 1 on Facebook and I've embedded it below:

Full disclosure: I still much prefer the previously mentioned video with Zimi.

Update: I just found two more videos with Tom Brady on OLPC's Flickrstream and certainly like them much better than the super-short one embedded above.

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Facebook G1G1 Give 1 Get 1 OLPC Tom Brady marketing video

G1G1 2008: From Give to Get in less than a day!

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:19:04 -0500

I'm impressed: less than 36 hours after Give 1 Get 1 started we are seeing the first report from a donor in the United States who made use of the overnight shipping option and received his Get XO today. The initial reaction is probably similar to what many of last year's Give 1 Get 1 donors experienced:

Jon's also a happy G1G1 donor.

I love this little laptop.

With this kind of initial feedback I'm sure the Give 1 Get 1 page on Amazon.com will keep showing the following information for quite a some time:

Popular in these categories:
#1 in Toys & Games > Electronics for Kids
#1 in Computers & PC Hardware > Laptop Computers

Stay tuned to dethl's thoughts as he toys around with his XO in this forum thread and generally let us know how your ordering goes by leaving a comment below or heading to the forums. We have also created a special sub-section for all things concerning Give 1 Get 1 Europe.

Kudos to Amazon and OLPC for obviously getting things right this time!

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Amazon G1G1 Give 1 Get 1 OLPC happy donor overnight shipping

Colombia Signs Up for Windows XO Laptops

(Wayan Vota) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 07:36:09 -0500

To great fanfare, Microsoft has announced that it is deploying XO laptops in Quetame and Chia, Colombia, with the Windows XP operations system, what I like to call "Windows XO", thereby claiming that Colombia signs up for OLPC laptops with Windows.

Windows XO laptop in action

This bragging certainly has pissed off Greg Dek, a Red Hat Community Architect working on OLPC. Greg declares that Microsoft bought 10,000 XO laptops in May and can do with them whatever they want, including trumpeted up pilots of Windows XO, and that OLPC builds with Linux and Sugar, and always will.

Now to an extent I can relate to Greg's frustration over Microsoft and One Laptop Per Child. He is right when he says:

[E]very time Microsoft farts in the general direction of OLPC, somebody prints a headline like "Microsoft cloud hovers over the OLPC project" that gets read by, oh, a bazillion people. And then we get another rousing chorus of the "OLPC sold out to Microsoft" song.

The mere whiff of XP flatulence near the XO laptop sends many into a dizzy. The great Peru Windows XO deployment? Apparently only 50 XO laptops. At the same time, its not like OLPC has tried very hard to resist Windows XO.

Not exactly anti-Windows XO

In fact, I remember this shocking image of a happy OLPC + Microsoft team looking on as Windows XO came alive, as much as Nicholas Negroponte's joy in announcing Windows as key to OLPC.

So with all due respect, Greg, while I know that OLPC is still committed to the ideals of FLOSS, its not trying all that hard to disprove that "OLPC sold out to Microsoft". Maybe OLPC could take the advice of Anonymous:

Prevent anyone making modifications to the laptop software from using the OLPC name. Then Microsoft is not freely allowed to make an OLPC trial, they have to rename it first.

At least then the headlines would read, "Colombia signs up for Windows XO laptops" and there would be some semblance that OLPC isn't a "Microsoft stooge".

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Colombia Greg Dek Microsoft Nicholas Negroponte OLPC Red Hat Sell Out Windows XO

Zimi thanks Give 1 Get 1 2007 donors

(Christoph Derndorfer) no_spam@olpcnews.com — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 18:04:46 -0500

In the run up to this year's Give 1 Get 1 OLPC has been doing a great job collecting photos and videos of the various deployments from around the world on the official OLPC Flickr stream. One of the videos has also made it to the organization's YouTube channel:

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G1G1 Give 1 Get 1 OLPC South Africa deployment video