[olpc-community-support] Very general questions about olpc

[Michael Burns]

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On Dec 15, 2007 8:52 AM, Mrs. J. McKeon <freekeon at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Hi!
> I am wondering...is there an Idiot's Guide to OLPC for me - I bought 2 for
> my kids through gogo and I need assistance in setting the things up...


http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User_guide


> my first line of questions (and there will be many more) are - how do I
> change the mouse preference - one of my kids is a lefty


Go south paws!

I don't know if this is a supported feature (yet!). Part of the development
process (what time we spend on writing new features) are directly responding
to what our users (and other developers) have a need for. When a new request
comes up, we "file a bug" and developers consider it as a task to work on
next. Since not many adult computer programmers use the left handed mouse,
it hasn't been added. You can go to our central development site, register,
and create a New Ticket regarding left mouse support

http://dev.laptop.org


> - how do I set the home page to something other than the google search bar
> - is there a web address bar somewhere


In browse, go to the website "about:config" (no quotes). This is a special
'settings' page that the core software uses. This page works the same in
Firefox. Use the search/filter to find:

browser.startup.homepage

Select it, and change it to any website you wish.

The top text/title can be clicked on and used as your address bar. You can
enter any website addres (say, http://yahoo.com/).


> - can we default a group for immediate chat rather than having to go
> through the invitation process each time the kids log on?  Is there any
> setting on the machine for parental controls once on the web, or is that
> something we will need to download from somewhere else, and does xo support
> it?


This is currently an after-the-fact product. Nothing is included to control
web permissions by parents. The Journal can be used as an audit of what
sites were visited though. Having the child know this is available may be
enough.

You can use http://opendns.com/ and set your XOs to use them as their DNS
(Internet phonebook server, for when a website name (laptop.org)is
translated to the numerical address (18.85.2.148). OpenDNS has free parental
controls, and I have had good experience with them overall.

If you try OpenDNS and find it useful, please share your experience here.
I'm sure other parents are in the same position you are.


>   Does xo support Flash (I have been seeing some conflicting info about
> that)?


We support Gnash, an free and open implmentation of Flash. It works on some
sites, but has slowdown problems. It should be possible to install the Linux
Flash program (from Adobe) onto the XO. Could be a fun learning experience
for you and your younge computer users. :)

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Flash

Gathering from previous posts, I get the feeling that olpc-open is not the
> list for these types of questions...


 Just in the last 5-7 days we've started
Community-support at lists.laptop.organd have it connected to
http://olpc.osuosl.org/forum I've posted my reply to that thread, instead of
olpc-open.

We have scoured OLPC's getting started web instructions, which seem light on
> details for me.  Any points in helpful directions will be greatly
> appreciated.
>

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Support

I hope these are helpful. Please feel free to ask questions if you run into
trouble.

-- 
Michael Burns * Student
Open Source {Education} Lab
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