[Community-news] OLPC News (2009-1-4)

[Jim Gettys]

Community News
A weekly update of One Laptop per Child January 4, 2009

Technology

Software:

1. The support, testing, and software development teams spent an
otherwise quiet week keeping track of the end of our Amazon G1G1
activities, and in preparation for the upcoming 8.2.1 software release
for testing. The team worked to get a test release posted and to upgrade
our test bed of machines for network QA.

2. Michael Stone helped get the web team unstuck by simplifying the
procedures for testing changes to the laptop.org website. He ran a
couple of 8.2.1 test cases.

3. Sayamindu Dasgupta polished the specs for SCIM support and the
enhanced language pack support for the 9.1 release. He also helped the
Uyghur translation project get started. Many thanks to Mehmud Abliz for
taking up the initiative.

Hardware:

4. One of the remaining laptop problems is the inability to activate
them due to failure of their real-time clocks. If the date kept by the
laptop is wildly incorrect, it will not activate, or will lose
activation.  This problem affects some small number of laptops (< 0.3%)
during initial delivery, but is also apt to occur after delivery. In
order to correct this failure mode, Quanta has improved their production
process to incorporate a full test of the RTC battery after assembly.

They have also designed a small rubber piece which will sit on top of
the battery. This piece will press against the back plate of the laptop,
preventing the battery from dislodging when jolted or vibrated. Both
measures will be in place on all future laptops. 

5. In future design iterations (XO or Gen-2), OLPC will move away from
reliance on the laptop's real-time clock for theft-deterrence. In
addition to the activation problems when the clock fails, the current
scheme requires either that regular Internet connectivity be provided or
that users be unable to alter the laptop's clock.

6. A spare part containing the newer, tougher keyboard and the new
touchpad (the upper base assembly) is now available from Quanta.
Providing this as a single unit facilitates updating the touchpads on
older units. It was requested by Uruguay to simplify keyboard
replacement. The price is slightly more than $15 when purchased in
orders of three thousand units or more direct from Quanta.

Networking:

7. Thanks to last minute heroics by Clyde Rodriguez, Rebecca Gonzalez
and Erik Salo at AMD, the work order for the open firmware / XP testing
by bSquare was signed before the end of 2008 and work has started by
bSquare. 

8. Keith Tzeng and his team at Quanta are testing XP running with OFW on
the XO. Their first testing results didn't uncover any serious issues or
any issues that are unique to open firmware. This was another amazing
performance from Mitch Bradley, who developed OFW's XP support layer
with no help from Microsoft.

>From the Field

Afghanistan: Now that the Afghan education minister has agreed to deploy
OLPC in line with our basic philosophy, things have started moving.
Salim Hayran, the OLPC lead in the ministry, has informed Habib Khan
that Estiqlal High School in Jalalabad (enrollment: 1020) will be the
first school to deploy 500 XO donated by OLPC NPA . Sevetlana Senjova,
manager for technical implementation of PAIWASTOON for OLPC in
Afghanistan, will be work with Habib to make a smooth deployment. Salim
has asked Habib to prepare a group of teachers as master trainers in
Kabul. He has yet to finalize a date for this activity. 

Pakistan: As a next step following Habib’s very productive meeting with
Kiramtullah Khan (Weekend, December 7th), speaker of the North-West
Frontier provincial assembly, the chief planning officer for the NWFP
department of education visited Habib in Islamabad to discuss
deployment, localization, teacher preparation and maintenance issues.
Habib reports that the CPO, an experienced educator, was very happy to
discover some of the potentials of XO and was eager for early deployment
and involvement of donors focused on his province to help children
learn. A memorandum of understanding awaits Kiramtullah Khan’s
signature. 

Habib also sent along the following reading activities developed by OLPC
Pakistan.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Animals_in_Urdu.pdf
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Historical_Places_in_Pakistan.pdf
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Plants.pdf
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Sayings_of_Imam_Ghazali.pdf

Below, the Dari version of animals and plants was translated by Sohaib
who is a long time OLPC volunteer:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Animals_and_plants_in_dari.pdf

-- 
Jim Gettys <jg at laptop.org>
One Laptop Per Child
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