<div dir="ltr">On Tue, Dec 27, 2016 at 8:52 AM, Adam Holt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:holt@laptop.org" target="_blank">holt@laptop.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Thanks Terry Gillett for accentuating this central point that I'd failed to
highlight -- now added to <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browser_improvements" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/<wbr>Browser_improvements</a>
:<br><br><div style="margin-left:40px">"<i>Perhaps Most Important: can we communicate concisely/explicitly best
browser & video "what works" guidelines, so that hard-working free
content aggregators/publishers (many of whom volunteers) understand
their tight packaging requirements across old Androids, old XO's, etc?
Hence greatly enhancing the XO's practical purposes during its remaining
years~"</i></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>James Cameron's recommendations (that I'd missed earlier, on the "discussion" page) added too:<br><br><div style="margin-left:40px">"It may be more effective to agree on a single representative test video which is transcoded into different
picture sizes, frame rates, codecs, bit rates, codecs, container
formats, and delivery network protocols. A smart proxy may be imagined that will transcode on the fly."<br></div><br>Thanks all for keeping the browser longevity/appropriateness recommendations coming!<br><br>To help as many deployments/communities as we can~<br><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div class="gmail-HOEnZb"><div class="gmail-h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 10:47 AM, Adam Holt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:holt@laptop.org" target="_blank">holt@laptop.org</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div><div>Thanks Tony for your voluminous and very thoughtful experiences below!<br><br></div>I'm pretty swamped with holiday prep over the coming 48 hours, but is there a good time I can call you in the coming 7-10 days?<br><br></div>I don't want to miss (or misrepresent) anybody's hard-fought "fieldback" / usability testing lessons, recommendations & opinions @ <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browser_improvements" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Brow<wbr>ser_improvements</a><br><br><div><div><div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5">On Sat, Dec 24, 2016 at 2:04 AM, Tony Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:tony_anderson@usa.net" target="_blank">tony_anderson@usa.net</a>></span> wrote:<br></div></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5">
Hi, Adam<br>
<br>
I hope the scope of this discussion is Sugar, not just the Browse
activity.<br>
<br>
First, the performance of the various models of the XO has not
changed and will never change.<br>
<br>
Second, the last major change to the Browse activity was the move
from Hulahop to Webkit. My guess is that the problems reported have
nothing to do with Browse (or Firefox or ....). I suspect that the
problems have to do with the burden on the server and the network. <br>
<br>
Three, solving performance problems depends on measurement, not
speculation. Through its history, Sugar developers (XO and XS) have
<br>
not measured anything in the real environment (a classroom of 40 XOs
collaborating or using a server). While XSCE incorporates Munin, I
have <br>
not seen any reports of the Munin measurements of an XSCE server in
a classroom of XOs. At the Malaysia summit it took about 30 mins to
establish by actual use that an access point was limited to 15
connections.<br>
<br>
Four, in my experience when there is a hiccup on an XO, the problem
needs investigation. The Log activity is frequently a good tool.
Since Sugar and its activities are written in Python and the source
code is immediately available, it is possible to add print
statements as needed to determine where the problem is. Python
includes a simple means to measure time elapsed between two points
in code to find badly written loops, etc.<br>
<br>
Over the years, I have developed a 'customize' script to add needed
features to Sugar. I view this as comparable to what a person
installing Fedora or Ubuntu does to configure the system for their
use. While Sugar developers seem to consider such changes as
blasphemy, the standard distributions encourage this.<br>
The Sugar developers have implemented the third different
configuration utility: gsettings replacing GConf and the configure
file Howeve, in line with their religion, the developers retain
control by providing the user with access only to selected settings
made visible through 'mysettngs'.<br>
<br>
The XOs in Rwanda are locked so these changes must be made
post-install, so the devlopers suggestions to make a Sugar build
locally is irrelevant.<br>
<br>
The xo-custom script is executed after the XO is flashed by:<br>
<br>
cd /run/media/olpc/xo1<br>
bash xo-custom<br>
<br>
where the usb stick label identifies the target XO model, in this
case the XO-1. There are five models: XO-1, XO-1.5, XO-1.75, XO-4,
XO-1SD.<br>
A current project is to create a single stick that can be used with
any model. This project also intends to provide a Sugar activity
custom-1.xo. <br>
The goal is that the user can flash any model from the same stick
and then can install the custom script by:<br>
<br>
cd /run/media/olpc/xomaster<br>
sugar-install-bundle custom-1.xo<br>
<br>
This has the advantage that the customization script can be run by
launching the custom activity (and erasing it upon completion).
Meanwhile the stick can be used to flash another XO. In a classroom
with mixed models, the same stick can be used.<br>
<br>
The customize script currently does the following:<br>
<br>
1. Install miscellaneous modules; zip, path.py, pexpect, ftp.
Probably only pexpect is needed since path.py can be included in the
activies that use it. Sugar now inlcudes zip. For sending files to
the server, scp is used instead of ftp. <br>
<br>
2. Remove ~/.ssh/known_hosts to prevent problems in registering the
server. <br>
<br>
3. Customize Sugar<br>
a. Change corner detection in frame to 0 (never). The goal is to
require the frame to be opened by the frame key and not by cursor
position.<br>
b. Implement a default where activities launched from the Home
View start new. Resuming activities can only be done from the
Journal.<br>
c. Change activity.py in
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packag<wbr>es/sugar/activity/ and in
/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packag<wbr>es/sugar3/activity to correct an error
<br>
in the Journal where a resumed activity can not be saved
under a new name without losing the original. The modified version
with 0.110 will also <br>
provide Utkarsh Tiwari's code to provide a requirement that
user's give saved files a name (comparable to changing 'untitled' in
Office). This change<br>
was not implemented in 0.110 because of quirky reasoning by
the Sugar developers. It also will provide similar ability to give a
screen shot a name <br>
without having to switch to the Journal.<br>
<br>
4. Update sugar-launch and sugar-install-bundle. These changes were
needed because of problems which probably now have been fixed. <br>
<br>
5. Update SimpleHTTPServer.py to add some needed mime_types such as
mp3, mp4, and so on.<br>
<br>
6. Provide custom index.html in /home/olpc/.library_pages. The
standard screen is nearly useless for an XO not connected to the
internet. The <br>
custom screen identifies the school or institution at the top
and provides direct links to the school server (This may the intent
of the 'captive portal' in xsce).<br>
I suspect many users are not aware that the opening page in
browse is <a class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803m_1122877469897946759gmail-m_7477070779228519786moz-txt-link-freetext">file:///home/olpc/library_page<wbr>s/index.html</a>).<br>
<br>
7. Add and remove Sugar activities to achieve a standard set. It is
very difficult for teachers to deal with an assignment to use a
specific activity such as <br>
Memorize only to find it is not installed on one or more XOs
in the class.<br>
Currently, the script replaces Browse (installing a
version with the jsfiddle feature and causing certain mime_types to
be downloaded and not displayed<br>
online( The current fashion in browsers is for the
browser to attempt to display any mime_type it knows - this is not
helpful for XOs where the object <br>
needs to be displayed away from the server. I can't
imagine a school where students are given class time to read War and
Peace). So, for example, <br>
pdfs, txt, mp3 (with one exception), mp4, epub, webm
files are downloaded to the Journal for offline access by Read or
the Jukebox. Recent versions of<br>
Sugar have included documents in the Home View along
with Sugar activities. Another example of the quirky thinking of the
developers. First, the<br>
library_page already includes documents stored locally.
However, documents in the Home View and in Browse require space on
local storage even<br>
though only a few users may ever need access to them.
With a schoolserver, these documents can be located there and
downloaded to the Journal as needed. The script will be
modified so that a deployment can decide which of these to keep and
which to omit. The script adds the Quiz activity, and <br>
replaces the Jukebox activity. The Jukebox activity is
retro-fitted version 26, the last version that supported gstreamer
0.1. The scripts enabling playing of mp3, mp4, etc. work
only with 0.1 due to undocumented changes in the design of 1.0.
Supposedly deprecation means that the new version<br>
provides all of the capabilities of the original and is
better. Clearly this is in the eye of the beholder.<br>
<br>
8. Install needed Gnome programs as Sugar activities.<br>
Currently the script installs Gcompris which includes
installing GCompris as a gnome application and then installing
gcompris-7.xo. It also intstalls the Zim<br>
Desktop Wiki. The install takes two steps, install Zim as a
gnome application and then install the zim-7.xo Sugar activity.<br>
<br>
9. Install flash support.<br>
<br>
10. Install media support for mp3, mp4, webm, and m4a. <br>
<br>
11. Install Libre Office as a gnome application (only on XOs with at
least 4GB storage). <br><span class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803m_1122877469897946759gmail-HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<br>
Tony</font></span></div></div><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803m_1122877469897946759gmail-h5"><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5"><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803m_1122877469897946759gmail-m_7477070779228519786moz-cite-prefix">On 12/23/2016 10:19 PM, Adam Holt
wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5">On Fri, Dec 23, 2016 at 3:09 PM, George Hunt <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:georgejhunt@gmail.com" target="_blank">georgejhunt@gmail.com</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
</div></div><div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">pursuant to our discussion this morning,
chrome on older 32 bit machines running linux will not
be supported after March 2017.
<div><br>
</div>
<div><a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/3010404/browsers/googles-killing-chrome-support-for-32-bit-linux-ubuntu-1204-and-debian-7.html" target="_blank">http://www.pcworld.com/article<wbr>/3010404/browsers/googles-kill<wbr>ing-chrome-support-for-32-bit-<wbr>linux-ubuntu-1204-and-debian-7<wbr>.html</a><br>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div> <br>
</div>
<div>Fascinating if unfortunate that Google wants old
hardware to just magically disappear, among the global
poor.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>another vote for firefox</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
<div> <br>
</div>
<div>Noted.<br>
<br>
</div>
</div></div><div><div><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803h5">I will continue to write up the best suggestions from
all @ <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Browser_improvements" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Brow<wbr>ser_improvements</a>
(please write your suggestions directly there as well, if
you so choose!)<br clear="all"><br></div></div><span class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">-- <br><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803m_1122877469897946759gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ <a href="http://unleashkids.org" target="_blank">http://unleashkids.org</a> !<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail-m_1351535733846219803gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ <a href="http://unleashkids.org" target="_blank">http://unleashkids.org</a> !<br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ <a href="http://unleashkids.org" target="_blank">http://unleashkids.org</a> !</div></div>
</div></div>
</div></div></font></span></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></div>