A Child's View of the OLPC 268
Finallyjoined!!! sends us a BBC account of a dad who traveled to Nigeria and brought back an XO laptop for his 9-year-old, Rufus. Here is Rufus's review, a child's view of OLPC. "Because it looks rather like a simple plastic toy, I had thought it might suffer the same fate as the radio-controlled dinosaur or the roller-skates he got last Christmas - enjoyed for a day or two, then ignored. Instead, it seems to provide enduring fascination... With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy rather too much of his time."
In Soviet Russia... (Score:5, Funny)
Already? (Score:5, Interesting)
I returned from Nigeria with a sample of the XO laptop
I did RTFA, and no mention of HOW he got the laptop... I know everyone was talking about these things ending up all over the world in the black market, don't tell me it's ALREADY there.
Re:Already? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Already? (Score:5, Funny)
[/obligatory Simpsons quote]
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Already? (Score:5, Funny)
That's nothin'. I returned from Nigeria with my late uncle's ashes and 30% of his $20,000,000 estate.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
your uncle is bill gates.
Re: (Score:2)
How about the kids in Iraq? Any OLPCs there yet? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How about the kids in Iraq? Any OLPCs there yet (Score:2)
Actually, that might not be true... good ol' Nick isn't really cool, just not evil.
Re:How about the kids in Iraq? Any OLPCs there yet (Score:2)
Re:How about the kids in Iraq? Any OLPCs there yet (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, I think they just need more maps.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Already? (Score:5, Funny)
How long will that one work? (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't the article's premise the exact situation which the OLPC designers feared?
Of course, the article mentions "a sample of the XO laptop", so I hope this this specific laptop wasn't obtained through such a secondary market...
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Informative)
First, the target markets are not all African schools. They have target countries on other continents as well. (Off the top of my head, I know there are several in South America.)
Second, it's not an automatic kill switch. It allows you to disable the laptop if it is reported stolen, and will disable the laptop if it hasn't been able to check with the server for a certain time period. If the laptop is properly configured with a school server, then (even across the Internet) it will still be able to maintain its lease, and it won't shut off.
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:How long will that one work? (Score:5, Informative)
So conceptually you have a point, but practically you're way off base.
Re: (Score:2)
Emulator? (Score:2)
Just curious.
Re:Emulator? (Score:5, Informative)
Wolfgang Rohrmoser and Kurt Gramlich are proud to announce the initial version of their OLPC XO-LiveCD. This new project targets these goals:
give children, students, teachers and parents the opportunity to participate and use the Sugar educational software on a common PC;
support demonstration of OLPC software to non-developers;
provide an easy maintainable Live-System for developers to test activities on the sugar desktop, this could be regarded as an alternative to existing OLPC virtualbox and qemu images.
The technology they choose embeds an unmodified official Redhat build into a framework (LiveBackup), which provides everything needed to run a live system. Going this way we are able to minimize the work for updates as new OLPC builds get released.
The ISO image are available at:
ftp://rohrmoser-engineering.de/pub/XO-LiveCD/ [rohrmoser-engineering.de]
as: XO-LiveCD_.iso
Images will be mirrored to:
http://skolelinux.de/XO-LiveCD/ [skolelinux.de]
Wolfgang and Kurt encourage everybody to try it out and give them feedback for improvements; please send mail to:
XO-LiveCD@skolelinux.de. Further information is available in the XO-LiveCD.pdf document at:
http://skolelinux.de/XO-LiveCD/XO-LiveCD.pdf [skolelinux.de]
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
It runs a customized, stripped-down version of Fedora Core 7 (details here [laptop.org]). There isn't an "XO emulator", but since it's s standard x86 system, you can emulate an XO [laptop.org] using Qemu, VMware, Virtualbox, or another virtualization program. (It's not perfect, but it is close enough to see how the system works.)
Re:Emulator? (Score:4, Informative)
Enjoy. It's a modified RedHat distro with a special WM called Sugar.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Different languages (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Different languages (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Different languages (Score:5, Funny)
Lisa: It's from my pen-pal Anya! [reads]
Anya: [voice over] Dear Lisa, as I write this, I am very sad. Our
president has been overthrown and
[voice changes to that of a man]
replaced by the benevolent general Krull. All hail Krull and his
glorious new regime! Sincerely, Little Girl.
BBC reporter (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Though the sound I've transliterated as 'th' has some of the 'ch' in the Scottish 'loch' too. But "Kechlan-Jones" might be mistaken for "Ketchlan-Jones", which would be even worse
Smart kid (Score:4, Funny)
The kid has made such a fast advancement that he has already been offered a job by Chris Hansen.
Re:Smart kid (Score:4, Insightful)
And in his spare time, working on the next version of the Linux core...
Re:Smart kid (Score:4, Funny)
A child's view of the $100 laptop is good and all (Score:4, Interesting)
Also, somebody might have pointed this out already, but this guy took a laptop from Nigeria to bring to the UK? That seems to defeat the point (from how it's stated in the article, it doesn't seem that it was from the buy one/give one program).
children are overrated (Score:5, Interesting)
I even tried to entice my son by talking a bit about encryption, thinking he would make the connection of "aha! I can hide stuff from the old man!" but even that lure failed to get him to open the Missing Manual book. I keep hoping to find an encrypted container indicating that he's learned something, but alas he lacks my secretiveness. Kids today!
Re: (Score:2)
For that latter fraction who are curious about computers, if they're not given the opportunity they won't hack perl scripts. This is about providing the opportunity to everyone, and hoping that a few rise to the challenge and start stimulating the society to grow.
Societies are al
oh, I agree (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Check for hidden compartments in his closet that's he discovered behind loose pieces of wooden molding that look perfectly normal like I used to hide condoms, cigarettes, porn and other contraband.
Re:children are overrated (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
and my kids (14, 16) have zero curiosity about either.
Perhaps this is why OLPC intends to give laptops to younger children than yours.
Re:A child's view of the $100 laptop is good and a (Score:2)
Not being in North America, the author is not eligible to participate in the Buy One, Get One program.
And while I'm sure Nicholas Negroponte would prefer that OLPC hardware being re-exported from third-world to first-world countries be an exceptional scenario rather than a common one, it's not necessarily a bad thing. If h
Conclusion: would be a great christmas present (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't doubt for a moment that this thread will be filled with the usual /. grousing about the usefulness of the entire project, but let's give credit where credit is due: it looks like they have made a product that appeals to children. Perhaps they know what they are doing?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Interesting reading about the chat feature (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Why yes, signed 32bit integer values can be very interesting from many points of view!
Re: (Score:2)
Potential Downsides: (Score:2)
Think of the worldwide catastrophe it would be for a shipment of these to fall into terrorist hands:
a) connect to other terrorists worldwide, creating an easy-to-use terrorist network
b) learn to hack by pressing "view source" button
c) a nearly indestructible ad-hoc network that world governments would be unable to take down
Clearly, the OLPC is a threat to freedom and the American spirit everywhere.
The miracle machine (Score:3, Funny)
419 (Score:5, Funny)
So...did he scam a Nigerian?
Re:419 (Score:5, Funny)
The Central Bank of Nigeria is now in possession of 500 "One Laptop Per Child" that is earmarked for our schools. Unfortunately, our minister of education recently died in a tragic car accident. You have been named as his beneficiary and will be responsible for their distribution. As one of the benefits, you will be able to keep one for your own child. To release those laptops, we will need your credit card number and personal details concerning your children so that we may chat with him on our Jabber server.
Please respond to 1-888-OLP-CCON with your information.
Regards,
M'Bol Zarhari
Esteemeed Grand Puba, Central Bank of NIgeria.
Finally!! (Score:2, Funny)
My kid made the honor role (Score:4, Funny)
Sounds like Rufus is a lot smarter than your kid. Figuring out all this stuff on his own. Before you know it, he'll be like his Dad, buying goods off the black market.
Re: (Score:2)
Kids and computer (Score:2)
My 3 year old son knows how to turn on PC + monitor, how to use mouse, double-click icons on desktop (Windows Vista Home Premium), knows which icon starts which program and so on. Heck, after a couple of minutes of practice he learned how to run Counter Strike Source, create a server and join the team he wants (usually CTs). He knows also how to start MS Paint and create some really cool post-modern art ;)
He likes to surf the web a lot, especially pictures of dragons and such. Because he can't read or write
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Kids and computer (Score:5, Interesting)
Not really.
My son learned how to do most of that (not counting playing CS. Although he does play some Web-based games at Noggin.com) at about 3 - 3/12. Now before you go saying "Well your son is just a genius." Please be aware, my son has Autism. He's not "normal" in any sense of the word, other than being physically healthy.
His learning is definitely behind that of his peers, requiring him to need a special in-school tutor to help him along. He's 5 now, and struggling along in 1st grade. Still, we're impressed with his progress so far, and are now looking for ways we can use his affinity for computers to help educate him.
The truth is, if parents would take just 5-15 minutes to sit down with their child at a computer and begin to use it with them, they would find that most kids would very quickly latch onto it, and soon be doing things with it themselves. I suspect that this will begin to happen more and more and the generation that was born into a world with computers and the internet as a common thing have kids of their own. Heck, it's ALREADY happening, if my son is any indication.
Don't sell your kids short. Get them in front of a computer and learning today. Their peers have already started.
Re: (Score:2)
My son was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at 2 years old (the earliest age that children can be diagnosed accurately) so no, being at a computer had nothing to do with it.
But congratulations on being a complete asshat about it. Perhaps you'd like to mock my 7 year old Daughter who was ALSO diagnosed with Autism? What the hell, might as well throw in a few autistic jokes while you are at it. I mean, if you are g
Re: (Score:2)
He knows what buttons to push to turn the PC on, but by design, he can't. I bought server-style cases with doors that cover the buttons. It's only a matter of
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
One thing that helped with letters was
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Little eyes... (Score:2)
She's 18 months and will pick up a Wii remote, point it at the TV, and wave it around like she's seen daddy do. On top of that, she's seen me use my iPhone enough that she knows that to turn it on you push the button and then slide the on-screen slider. She even knows that you touch the clock icon to see the "tic tic"--
Re:Kids and computer (Score:5, Insightful)
That's some pretty good parenting, right there.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
My kids have picked up use of a PC with little or no instruction - interested kids have a way of just figuring stuff out by trying things (something we lose the tendency to do as we head into adulthood).
I have had to put controls in place to _stop_ them signing up for chatrooms, ebay, gambling sites etc. (because I found them doing it - way before I thought I would have to worry about it). The oldest is _6_. At no time have they been _taught_ how to do the
Re: (Score:2)
I'm going to have to agree that being able to use a computer at 9 when you grew up on a 1st world country is not very impressive. It's not a bad thing. Just something that isn't
Another Kid's Review (Score:5, Informative)
It all makes sense now (Score:2)
Por fin... they can get ahead the EU & US (Score:4, Interesting)
This is actually a tool that would allow these counties to get ahead of EU & US. Because this will empower children when they are most active at learning, at 9 years old you can learn alot, that will get us alot of creative people, writers, programmers and artist in a 4-9 years.
The question is will these children need to learn english, or can they just create local economies, based on heir own language?
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The Diamond Age (Score:4, Insightful)
First George Orwell, now this. Where does it end?
Re: (Score:2)
and I can't wait for mine to get here!
Review (Score:5, Insightful)
My six year old (Score:2)
If they became commercially available in the US I'd buy one - and yeah, I missed the "buy 2 get 1" promo.
You didn't miss it (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.laptopgiving.org/ [laptopgiving.org]
Kids like computers, there's a shock. (Score:2)
He likes the notebook too, and when I'm surfing, he'll use the page up and page down keys to scroll back to a part that he liked on the page. We can s
No surprises (Score:4, Insightful)
So far as the length of his fascination - let's hear back in another week or two, or another month, or next year. From late November to now is a matter of three weeks, tops. Even for a nine year old this isn't particularly long.
This project is going to change things (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Something smells...and it aint my pants (Score:5, Informative)
The XO laptops connect through a school Jabber server, so if his laptop was set to use the same Jabber server, then he could see all of the people at that school, even if he's not on their local wireless network.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh yeah, it has no bearing at all.
Maybe you should go read up on the OLPC software stack.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
Yes, I realize that they have entirely different software, but as with ALL new things - its rarely so straightforward as that example. Heck...even with a WiFi enabled PDA its pretty difficult to get anywhere - let alone CHAT with someone - be it Jabber or anything else, you have to be in the right spot, all connections running perfec
Re: (Score:2)
Hmm.
Install zsIRC
Type
You're chatting
How hard is that on a WiFi-enabled PDA?
Even easier on this XO laptop - software is preinstalled and there is a preset chat server.
The problem with
Re: (Score:2)
For you and I? Duh...
But picture this: Laptop for KIDS... then picture this: 3rd world Kids!
Many of these havent even ever seen a laptop.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Something smells...and it aint my pants (Score:5, Funny)
Something smells...and it aint my pants
It's your pants. Totally.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Can't it be both?
Probably not.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That typically comes from paying a high price for a low return (not just financially/materially either). In this case it is financial/material, and it seems more like a low price/high return.
Here we go again (Score:5, Insightful)
The acquisition and distribution costs alone pay for the OLPC. The other benefits are pure gravy.
It is also pathetically patronizing to tell these people to stop growing their own food and rely on handouts from foreigners for such basic necessities. "We're foreigners and we're here to help because you are too dumb to grow your own food" just doesn't cut it. Far better to grow their own food and rely on OLPC handouts that they *can't* make themselves; at least that is the beginning of a way up the ladder to a better life. Begging for food isn't.
Re:Here we go again (Score:4, Informative)
I know a chemistry professor at the school where I teach who's an Ethiopian immigrant, and he used to organize textbook donation drives every few years. People would give him books, and he would send them to Ethiopia. He eventually stopped doing it, however, because it was too difficult to get the books to the students due to political corruption. Assuming the OLPC machines really do get to the kids (rather than being sold to enrich politically connected adults) in places like Nigeria, a big advantage would be that it would give the kids direct access to books that can't easily be interfered with.
OTOH, I maintain a catalog of free books (see my sig), and AFAIK there is essentially nothing out there as far as free elementary school books, and almost nothing for high school either. I do know of a South African project to produce a high school physics text (http://www.fhsst.org/), for example, but the project seems to have been moving along extremely slowly. Something like Wikibooks would seem like a natural vehicle for creating such books (ease of use + ease of translation), but Wikibooks has turned out to be a failure at its original goal of producing university-level textbooks (much better at producing gaming guides). In general, I don't think group authoring has been at all successful as a model for creating free textbooks. Authoring by an individual teacher scratching his/her own itch has been much more successful, but virtually all of that activity has been (a) in English, (b) in rich, industrialized countries, and (c) at the university level.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, it seems that the OLPC machines aren't going to enrich (*) politically connected Nigerian adults but instead they're going to be week-long playthings for "western" journalists instead.
I don't recall reading in the article the guys justific