[Its.an.education.project] An OLPC Development Model

Edward Cherlin echerlin at gmail.com
Sat May 10 02:30:36 EDT 2008


2008/5/9 Alan Kay <alan.nemo at yahoo.com>:
> We are now several dimensions off topic ...
>
> Cheers,
>
> Alan

The Research mailing list is available for such discussions.

> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006 at gmx.net>
> To: Bert Freudenberg <bert at freudenbergs.de>
> Cc: Education <its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org>; OLPC Devel
> <devel at laptop.org>
> Sent: Friday, May 9, 2008 4:59:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [Its.an.education.project] An OLPC Development Model
>
> On 10.05.2008 00:13, Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>> On 09.05.2008, at 20:31, david at lang.hm wrote:
>>
>>> Bert,
>>>  if you try and say that the entire world is wrong in how it writes
>>> software,
>>>
>>
>> Actually, that's exactly what I think, and "entire world" includes
>> yours truly ;)
>> But this isn't the place to talk about that (if you're curious, visit
>> VPRI [*]).
>>
>> No, it's not foremost about how the software is written, but about how
>> it is presented to the user. Unfortunately, interface design is much
>> harder than just writing software.
>>
>
> The VPRI stuff is scary because it proposes the equivalent of using
> assembler code to speed up C programs. Performing model checking against
> one piece of code, then replacing that piece of code with another one
> for speed reasons in production is really a horrible plan. It also makes
> it obvious that the mathematically correct code is expected to be
> unusably slow.
>
>
>> [...]
>> For example, the fastest way for me to retrieve a file is typing it in
>> the system-wide search box on my machine, or into google. It doesn't
>> matter where in the file system hierarchy or on which server it is
>> stored. That is pretty much what the Journal would do, too. Also, the
>> Journal will allow tagging, which is equivalent (but more powerful) to
>> a directory hierarchy. Etc.
>>
>
> Actually, tags are just the equivalence of file names and they are more
> efficient to use than simple searches. If you know exactly what you want
> and where to find it, searching for it is one of the worst choices
> possible besides random walking and active avoidance. With
> Mozilla/Firefox/Seamonkey, typing in the first few letters of the URL
> takes you faster to an often-used site (due to autocompletion) than
> using any search engine. In real life, searching is a last resort if
> direct access is impossible. If you keep your bike at a fixed location
> you can remember among other bikes in a bike shed, you walk straight to
> your bike and don't search for it.
>
>
>> [*] see http://vpri.org/html/work/ifnct.htm
>>
>
> Regards,
> Carl-Daniel
> _______________________________________________
> Its.an.education.project mailing list
> Its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org
> http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project
>
> ________________________________
> Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it
> now.
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
>
>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay



More information about the Devel mailing list