Archive for the ‘ OLPC ’ Category
Video Chat for OLPC XOs
Pia has posted an update RE: the Video Chat application she’s championing for XOs. What you may have expected to be an integral feature wasn’t actually available until the development of this package. This is a good example of the benefits of developing on an open platform – the community can and is able to step in [...]
OLPC XO distribution on Google Maps
Just a quick one; using Google Maps is a great way to surf for OLPC XO info. If you check out the following link you’ll get a comprehensive overview of the effort to date and can easily delve deeper into each specific project from there. View Larger Map
Research and training lead to great opportunities for OLPC’s XO
In Wisconsin computer savvy members of the public take time and care to discover if the XO holds potential for them… “The calm breaks when the doorbell rings and six children ranging from 6 to 10 years old tumble into the apartment, which has been converted into the Southdale Kids Club Day Camp. The students [...]
Detailed Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
Walter Bender, former head of software development at OLPC and now running his independent Sugar Labs, gives an in depth interview over at Groklaw. The discussion includes the latest on the OLPC XO/Windows situation, the current status of Sugar and FOSS in general. Well worth the read!
Open Source On The Air
James and Karin from Open Source On The Air get Pia “into the studio” and have a good discussion dealing with the latest OLPC XO / Windows news, Open Source in general and Software Freedom Day 08. Prior to Pia’s segment there’s a great talk on the state of audio in Linux. Paul Wayper, open source [...]
Windows on OLPC XOs Peru – The conversation heats up!
The latest article on the OLPC Windows XP pilot to take place in Peru over at OLPCNews has attracted a good conversation to it. The comments generally split between Pro-Windows people seeking more functionality for “Real World” applications and those who are afraid Microsoft’s entrance into the project will close some of the openness of [...]
Peru OLPC to trial Windows
Cnet is reporting today that “Microsoft and the One Laptop Per Child project announced Monday that Peru will be the first country to try out XO laptops running Microsoft Windows as part of a nine-month pilot program.” Which comes as a bit of a surprise to me, as I haven’t read anywhere that Windows runs [...]
Google Invests In Broadband For Poorer Countries
Already Slashdotted is Google’s announcement of $750m towards broadband infrastructure in Africa. Headed up by 03b, the project will involve launching over a dozen satellites to provide broadband capacity of African nations along with setting physical backbones and WiMax infrastructure. A customer grab or a purely philanthropic venture? Well, don’t forget Google has put a [...]
OLPC XOs reach Rwanda
500 donated XOs have been distributed to Rwandan school children this week, reports AllAfrica.com. “The Minister of Primary and Secondary Education, Theoneste Mutsindashyaka, thanked President Paul Kagame for liaising with his friend Nicolae Negroponte, the proprietor of OLPC project, who offered Rwanda’s education sector the Laptops. “This is a very remarkable day in the records [...]
Challenging the notion of competition
Since beginning my OLPC adventure I’ve been staying on top of the chatter as best I can. After a few weeks of watching carefully, I’m concerned about some of the language used to relate to the project and projects like it. The web has taken a positive tone to the social goals of low cost [...]
OLPC G1G1 returns
Given the success of the G1G1 (Give Get One) it was only a matter of time till they ran something similar again. This time around addressing the supply/demand issue (G1G1 suffered serious waiting times/delivery issues because of supply chain problems. “Although the first iteration of the ‘G1G1’ program was extremely successful and sold more then [...]
GentXO
Unbeknownst to me, Chris has also had the opportunity to play around with an OLPC XO unit and – of course! – he’s done a custom Linux job for it. He’s put together an XO friendly install of Gentoo, bootable from a flash drive. The impetus came from the Sugar interface not being right for [...]
a long way from here
An English note pointing towards a photoblog in Spanish by someone from the Ceibal Project, a group that sets up the Internet connections for schools involved with the OLPC project, leads me to link it here. The photos are from Uruguay where there are almost 150,000 XO laptops deployed nationally.
audio samples for the XO
There are over 10 gig of free audio samples available for XO users and OLPC enthusiasts on the OLPC Wiki. That’s a lot of audio. According to the top of the page, just added are “Loops, Grooves, Licks, Stings, Hits, Pads, Melodic Motives/Themes/Phrases, Sound-Effects, City and Country Soundscapes, Motors, Machines, Toys, Guns, Explosions, Swords, Armor, Cars, [...]
Windows and OLPC XO
Ben Thompson over at Half Life Source is reporting on the ever increasing talk about the OLPC project’s XO laptop moving away from Linux in preference of Windows. The argument goes along the lines of it being better to expose children to Outlook, Office and other Msoft packages, as these are the software that run [...]
