[OLPC-SF] Microsoft Is Joining Low-Cost Laptop Project - New York Times

[Christian Einfeldt]

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 12:58 PM, Drew Hess <dhess at bothan.net> wrote:

> > To that end, we still have about 50 machines at the school that could be
> > donated to two different low income projects that have requested these
> > boxes, but not enough hands to get it done.  If we could make a
> commitment
> > to get together every Saturday for the next three of four Saturdays
> (after
> > this Saturday, for which I have another FOSS event), we could do it.
>
>
> Hi Christian,
>
> Can you provide some more specifics on these projects? What needs to
> be done, exactly?


There actually are two subprojects, the Ubuntu computer giveaways, and the
thin client network in the Ubuntu lab.

1) triage about 60 boxes to build good boxes from bad boxes.

2) inventory the RAM needs of those boxes and make a list of the RAM needed
so that we can submit a proper request to James Burgett of ACCRC for the
appropriate type of RAM.  Students have been complaining that their boxes
are slow, and they have trouble playing YouTube well on some of them
(anything less than 512 MB RAM.

3)  Make a trip over to ACCRC in Berkeley.  Drop off a few bad monitors and
the remains of the triaged boxes from step one at ACCRC.

4) Pick up the RAM and install it in the boxes.

5) Maximize the RAM in the thin clients that are sitting in the lab.

6) turn the machines in the lab from thin clients to hybrids, to maximize
the speed on the clients.

7)  assess and maximize the network at the school so that all of the clients
and the server have 10/100/1000 switches to maximize throughput (not sure
what they have now).  Acquire and Install optimally fast cables.

8)  Install Hardy Edubuntu on the server for next year.  We must preserve
the login accounts for returning students.

9)  get a list from the principal of returning students.  Delete the
accounts for non-returning students.

10)  get sound working across the network.  Currently, only GNU Denemo can
play sound across the network, and then only so long as the students do not
initiate playback of the music they have composed more than one at a time.
It is possible for multiple students to _listen_ to their music one at a
time, but they cannot _initiate playback_ of their music for more than one
student at a time.  For example, if a student composes a little song that
lasts 30 seconds, the other students cannot start playing their music until
that first student has started, then the second, then the third, etc.  If
each student's song takes say 30 seconds, to play, and it takes 3 seconds to
go from student to student, then the system will work.  But what we have had
to do is to start playback from student one, confirm he /she has sound by
having the student nod for yes and shake their head for no, go to student
number two, repeat, and so forth. It is tedious.  We have not been able to
play YouTube across the network at all.

11) Install, configure, and maintain a proxy server in the Ubuntu thin
client lab, so that all the students will experience faster Internet
connectivity. We have an old openSUSE box configured as a proxy, but we
never got it installed, due to insufficient interest among people with
sufficient skills.  I can maintain the system by doing daily stuff such as
checking the lab every morning to make sure that it is running properly, but
my sys admin skills are certainly only level one type skills.  I am learning
new skills all the time, but on a catch-as-catch-can basis, since I have a
job and a girlfriend and an open source documentary film that I am working
on.

12)  I need someone to be available for occasional level 2 and 3 questions.

The school is going to have to cut 10% from its budget next year, so please
don't tell me that they need to hire someone to do this stuff.  If our LUG
community had not come along to do the work that we have done so far on this
lab, the school simply would not have had computers for their students.  As
will be seen when the recent interview of the principal hits the Internet
Archive's Digital Tipping Point Video Collection, the principal feels that
it is her mission to teach the kids to read and to do math.  That is her
first priority.  The kids who attend this school come to her reading 2 grade
levels behind, and 3 levels behind in math.  80% of the students are
officially "poor" by US Federal assistance program measures, which is very
low, indeed, and therefore qualify for free lunches.  And yet, by the time
they graduate, they have accelerated to such an extent that they are
typically accepted into the best public and private high schools in San
Francisco.  This year, the students were collectively awarded $907,000.00
in grants to the best private schools in San Francisco.  45% of students who
attend school are African American, and 45% are Latino.  That means that
this school is succeeding in beating the race barrier for lots of kids, who
never would have the opportunity to go to some of the best private schools
in San Francisco, schools that are typically atttended by wealthy Caucasian
kids. This school deserves our support.  They are succeeding.

-- 
Christian Einfeldt,
Producer, The Digital Tipping Point
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