[PyCON-Organizers] OLPCs not considerate wireless users

[Michael Burns]

On Nov 12, 2007 9:18 AM, Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves <justivo at gmail.com> wrote:
> I've noticed that mesh activity appears to be ALWAYS on.  Even when
> the laptop is not doing anything, as in not conected to a school/local
> mesh and not sharing any activity.  Sometimes even on Suspend mode I
> see the Wireless activity light flashing.

This is by design. XO are able to route software even while asleep,
due to their Marvell wireless chipset. It is actually a really
beneficial feature. A mesh network is only useful if many peers are
sharing the load. By sleeping a computer, you effectively take out a
potential worker for that mesh, unless you do as we have done and
allow the wireless card to keep operating independently.

>  I'm sure this somehow
> drains batteries faster than it should and probably adds unnecessary
> traffic to a Wiresless network.

It drains on the order of sub-half watt, with work to tune it even
lower. (ie. extremely little power use)

> My suggestion is to activate the Mesh only when needed: when sharing
> an activity or when connecting with someone who does.  Or somehow find
> a way to tune it down (e.g. less updates).

Part of our use case is to have a list of buddies currently available
to share an activity with. How do you click an XO icon to share with
unless both computers (the one you are using and the one you want to
share with) are actively on the mesh?

The amount of wireless traffic and power usage is extremely small in
comparison to how convenient it is.


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