<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Walter Bender</b> <<a href="mailto:walter@laptop.org">walter@laptop.org</a>><br>Date: Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 9:54 PM<br>
Subject: [Community-news] OLPC News (2008-03-29)<br>To: <a href="mailto:community-news@laptop.org">community-news@laptop.org</a><br>Cc: OLPC Devel <<a href="mailto:devel@lists.laptop.org">devel@lists.laptop.org</a>>, Sugar Mailing List <<a href="mailto:sugar@lists.laptop.org">sugar@lists.laptop.org</a>><br>
<br><br>1. Peru: Carla Monroy Gomez is in Lima, helping with the final<br>
preparations for the second round of teacher preparation in Peru. This<br>
coming week, 600 teachers in four regional centers will use the XO<br>
Laptop to explore, express, and collaborate. The next phase of the<br>
preparation will be in 18 regions as the XO is moving in waves into<br>
the furthest reaches of the country.<br>
<br>
2. Update.1: Michael Stone, Chris Ball, and the rest of the tech team<br>
helped to prepare a new software release (Release Candidate 3) for<br>
Peru and Mexico this week. Update.1 will be tested in country and<br>
presumably be released at in the first week of April.<br>
<br>
3. Security: Michael and Walter reviewed the Bitfrost specification,<br>
which is being implemented in phases. The current status (Update.1) is<br>
reflected in the wiki (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Bitfrost#Current_Status" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Bitfrost#Current_Status</a>).<br>
<br>
4. Kavre, Nepal: The Nepalese Department of Education, Ministry of<br>
Education in coordination with OLPC Nepal has launched a pilot program<br>
of OLPC in Janajyoti School, Kavre. Minister of Education, Pradip<br>
Nepal stated the pilot as the first step of One Laptop Per Nepali<br>
Child movement. Director General of Department of Education marked the<br>
distribution day as a historical moment in Nepalese education history.<br>
Ankur, Iswor, Jitendra, Jwalanta, Manish, Nirmal, Prakash, Shankar,<br>
Shishir, Suyesh, Ujjwal, Sulav, Suraj, Suvash are working in the field<br>
among other OLPC Nepal volunteers. "Everyone is excited, the<br>
government officials, OLPC Nepal community, the school, parents and<br>
THE KIDS." (OLPC Nepal team has codenamed the pilot as "Sunrise". See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sunrise" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sunrise</a> and <a href="http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com</a>).<br>
<br>
Sulochan Acharya has built a prototype "E-Pustakalaya" (E-Library) for<br>
Nepal's deployments using the FedoraCommons Repository Software and<br>
the Fez front-end. FedoraCommons differs from typical content<br>
management systems in that it can scale to millions of objects.<br>
E-Pustakalaya will be publicly accessible within a few weeks and<br>
Sulochan will work to document his configuration.<br>
<br>
Teacher preparation for Bashuki and Bishwamitra schools begins on<br>
Saturday, March 29th. Bipul Gautam, Kamana Regmi, and Dr. Saurav Dev<br>
Bhatta of OLE Nepal are conducting a four-day training session for 24<br>
teachers and officials from Nepal's Department of Education. The<br>
training session will focus on general computer literacy for the<br>
teachers themselves (the majority of whom have never touched a<br>
computer), using computers in the classroom, and child-centered<br>
teaching/learning.<br>
<br>
5. School server: John Watlington and Martin Langhoff coordinated a<br>
conference call to discuss the School Server Roadmap with a large<br>
group of interested parties. General goals and timeframes were<br>
covered, and the team will focus hard on the upcoming release, which<br>
be tagged 'xs-0.3' (See <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Roadmap" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Roadmap</a> and<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Conf_08_MAR_25_Notes" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Conf_08_MAR_25_Notes</a>).<br>
<br>
Martin has setup a fully portable build environment, and been cranking<br>
out preliminary XS images that contain fixes for some of the blocker<br>
bugs for xs-0.3. A local-to-OLPC-hosted build environment for the XS<br>
will soon be ready to take over the "xs-dev" role, thanks to the<br>
efforts of Henry Hardy.<br>
<br>
Martin and SJ Klein have collected some initial notes on a<br>
learning-object distribution strategy heavily inspired in Debian's<br>
repository format. Expect to see an edited version in a wiki nearby<br>
soon.<br>
<br>
Documentation updates about the School Server are underway in the<br>
wiki, thanks to John Watlington, Martin Langhoff, and volunteers<br>
culling updated information from the mailing list.<br>
<br>
6. Support: Adam Holt helped provoke a very rewarding discussion<br>
between guest speaker Ric Holt (SW engineering professor), OLPC's<br>
Michael Stone, and the volunteer support team regarding OLPC's<br>
software engineering and bug-triaging challenges, including how we<br>
will support Update.1 given the concerns and anxiety around Activities<br>
"disappearing" as a result of the update process.<br>
<br>
[As of Update.1, we'll have separated the operating system updates<br>
from the activity updates, which may initially give the appearance of<br>
activities disappearing. The "customization key" process (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Customization_key" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Customization_key</a>) is intended to facilitate<br>
customization of activities; also Bert Freudenberg has written a<br>
script to install the default set of activities:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://dev.laptop.org/%7Ebert/update-activities.py" target="_blank">http://dev.laptop.org/~bert/update-activities.py</a><br>
<br>
Getting the activities back is then as simple as:<br>
<br>
wget <a href="http://dev.laptop.org/%7Ebert/update-activities.py" target="_blank">dev.laptop.org/~bert/update-activities.py</a><br>
python update-activities.py<br>
<br>
...which works from the ctrl-alt-meshkey console.]<br>
<br>
Adam plowed through a "zillion" more shipping/fulfillment tickets with<br>
Sandy Culver and Alan Claver as Brightstar completed its final *bulk*<br>
shipments to Give One Get One donors. This does *not* mean all<br>
shipments have gone out, as some exceptional cases still have to be<br>
dealt with over the month of April. Many thanks to our overworked and<br>
understaffed volunteers.<br>
<br>
Adam organized shipments of broken machines to support volunteers and<br>
community and for-profit repair centers (five in the USA, two in<br>
Canada, and one in the Netherlands). A spare-parts supply-chain is<br>
still badly needed—especially for keyboards—we expect better news in<br>
coming weeks.<br>
<br>
We'd like to welcome Support Specialist Emily Smith, who will start on<br>
Monday, 31 March, 9AM and work through at least the June/July time<br>
frame. Emily is brilliant, polished, believing—a library scientist who<br>
will be a huge help, even if only a our temp.<br>
<br>
7. Sugar/Datastore: Eben Eliason will be giving the sugar-iconify<br>
script an overhaul in the near future. Among the changes there are a<br>
number for robustness, better error handling, and additional icon<br>
validation warnings. More useful to developers, Eben is also adding<br>
an option which will export a set of icons rendered in several styles,<br>
along with an html preview file, for observing them as they may appear<br>
within Sugar. The preview file also contains a list of items to<br>
validate the appearance of the icons.<br>
<br>
Eben worked out some new visual treatments for object transfers as a<br>
core component of the OS (Initial sketches can be seen at<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Specifications/Object_Transfers" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Specifications/Object_Transfers</a>). Eben also<br>
tackled the problem of palette alerts, for instances where a given<br>
icon in the Frame needs to convey additional alert information (eg.<br>
low battery, failed transfer, etc.)<br>
<br>
Morgan Collette released Chat-36.xo for Joyride/Update.2, with an<br>
improvement to open URLs using show_object_in_journal when you click<br>
on them. The "copy to clipboard" functionality is still there on<br>
rollover at this stage but probably not necessary any more. This<br>
release also fixes some minor user<br>
interface issues (Tickets #5053, #6621, and #6743) and also simplifies<br>
the telepathy code based on the improved Presence Service<br>
channel-creation API in Update.1.<br>
<br>
8. Collaboration/Mesh: Chris Ball Worked on release testing and<br>
debugging, focusing his efforts mainly around activity sharing with<br>
Salut (Ticket #6739). The current status is that activity joining in<br>
703 is reliable against a Jabber server, and fails sporadically on<br>
link-local access point or<br>
mesh.<br>
<br>
John Watlington continued testing and analysis of data taken in our<br>
new Collaboration and Networking Testbed (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collaboration_Network_Testbed" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Collaboration_Network_Testbed</a>). This data<br>
indicates that our problems with using mesh networking to connect more<br>
than a small number of laptops to a school server seem due to<br>
fundamental problems with the routing algorithms used, not flaws in<br>
the implementation. More experiments are being run, to test<br>
adjustments to the existing algorithms, and possible modifications are<br>
already being discussed. In the meantime, we strongly suggest that<br>
school deployments use 802.11b/g wireless access points.<br>
<br>
Dafydd Harries Worked on improving documentation on the OLPC wiki<br>
about how activity sharing/collaboration work; he met with Michael<br>
Stone and Jonathan Hertzog to discuss how we might improve<br>
communications security in Sugar.<br>
<br>
Morgan released Presence Service 0.79.2 for Joyride/Update.2, with<br>
improved debugging, and assisted with debugging various sharing<br>
failures on Salut (Ticket #6739).<br>
<br>
Guillaume Desmottes continued the Salut refactoring. He tracked<br>
activity sharing problems (Tickets #6774, #6739, #6483). After<br>
investigation they seem to be due to network problems. He wrote a<br>
small Salut patch (#6782) improving debug output to help us to track<br>
these errors.<br>
<br>
9. Releases/Testing: Thanks for all the help testing Update.1<br>
candidate releases 702 and 703 this week! Simon Schampijer set up a<br>
wiki page for these test results (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Testing_Update.1_Results" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Testing_Update.1_Results</a>) and many have<br>
contributed, including Gary Martin, SJ, Eduardo Silva, Michael,<br>
Walter, and Chris. Also thanks to Bryan Berry, Kim Quirk, and Scott<br>
Ananian for help on the release notes for Update.1, which are<br>
beginning to shape up (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Update.1_Software_Release_Notes" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Update.1_Software_Release_Notes</a>).<br>
<br>
10. Multi-battery charger: Richard Smith spent the week working with<br>
the 15-channel multi-battery charger prototype electronics. Testing<br>
has flushed out some software bugs, but nothing major so far. Overall<br>
the electronics appear to be working as expected. Many of the the<br>
mechanical parts have arrived at Gecko, where they have been inspected<br>
and approved or feedback submitted the manufacturer. The final parts<br>
are scheduled to arrive the week of April 4. Next week, Gecko should<br>
able to assemble a full prototype.<br>
<br>
11. Active Antennae: John reports that a problem has been found with<br>
the cables used in building the 2000 pre-production prototypes (they<br>
aren't USB cables), requiring a rework. This will delay the arrival of<br>
these antennae for several more weeks. We still have around fifty in<br>
stock, so developers and small trials shouldn't be affected.<br>
<br>
12. Keyboards: There are about 25 laptop recipients who wrote into the<br>
help support-gang looking for replacement keyboards. Membrane<br>
keyboards pose a tradeoff between the durability of the rubber<br>
membrane and the flexibility, or "give", of the resulting keys. We are<br>
looking at a variety of options.<br>
<br>
13. FOSSCOMM: Diomidis Spinellis presented the XO at the Free and Open<br>
Source Software Communities (<a href="http://www.fosscomm.gr" target="_blank">http://www.fosscomm.gr</a>) conference at<br>
the National Technical University of Athens, in Greece. The<br>
presentation included a live demo of Sugar, Squeak EToys, and the<br>
Antikythera mechanism emulator developed using EToys.<br>
<br>
14. Video of the week: Tom Boonsiri has posted a Youtube video of an<br>
ECG that uses the Measure activity. Power for a small breadboard is<br>
drawn from the USB port; the signal is input through the microphone<br>
input. (See <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1QKTKAAug4" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1QKTKAAug4</a>). TOm notes<br>
that the amplifier circuit also doubles as an EMG: you can take an<br>
electrode and place it on the forearm and flex to see the muscle<br>
activity reflected in the waveform, a great example of using the<br>
laptop to allow children to explore how their bodies work.<br>
<br>
15. FoodForce: Deepank Gupta, with support from Silke Buhr from the<br>
WFP, reports much progress on the port of FoodForce to the XO laptop<br>
(See <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Food_Force" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Food_Force</a>).<br>
<br>
16. SocialCalc: K.S. Preeti (Preeti), an engineering student from<br>
NSIT, who has been lately working with Manu Gupta to develop<br>
JavaScript-Python Communication support for any JavaScript-based<br>
application (See : <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/JS-Python" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/JS-Python</a>). She has<br>
recently been selected in the elite group of "25 Best Women<br>
Engineering Students of India" by Google. Congrats Preeti!<br>
<br>
Dan Bricklin has been busy as well. He reports that he has sped up the<br>
cursor display on the XO laptop such that "the cursor just moves" when<br>
selecting a cell or a range. Dan had also completed the main code in<br>
SocialCalc for handling named cells and ranges in formulas. He has<br>
inter-sheet support working in the recalculation engine. He has added<br>
a "comment" property to cells so that we'll be able to store a string<br>
of text with any cell containing descriptive information about the<br>
formula, the data, or whatever. He has written the code for saving and<br>
restoring the scroll position of the sheet, including the cursor<br>
position and the locked-panes settings. This is especially important<br>
for using SocialCalc on a small screen such as the XO.<br>
<br>
17. Develop: Jameson Chema Quinn has been working on the Develop<br>
activity. He has posted the latest version on the wiki (See<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities</a> and<br>
<a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Develop" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Develop</a>). "It really works! Not just a toy."<br>
<br>
-walter<br>
<font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Walter Bender<br>
One Laptop per Child<br>
<a href="http://laptop.org" target="_blank">http://laptop.org</a><br>
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