[Server-devel] Server-devel Digest, Vol 78, Issue 8

[Tony Anderson]

Hi,

It is important to download content to the XO so that children can 
access them offline. This is not a technical problem. In the Karma 
Learning System, this is done using cgi-scripts which access the school 
server using sftp.

Tony


On 10/07/2013 12:00 PM, server-devel-request at lists.laptop.org wrote:
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> Today's Topics:
>
>     1. The concept of "pushing" content to clients (Anna)
>     2. Re: [XSCE] The concept of "pushing" content to	clients
>        (James Cameron)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 6 Oct 2013 21:31:09 -0500
> From: Anna <aschoolf at gmail.com>
> To: xsce-devel <xsce-devel at googlegroups.com>, 	Server Devel
> 	<server-devel at lists.laptop.org>
> Subject: [Server-devel] The concept of "pushing" content to clients
> Message-ID:
> 	<CAFM0qr2MeA9WuT1QXkUBKTNUX8OKrzrF4DG2TZzw9q94AAjbng at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> I got my Mom a refurb Kindle for $50 for her birthday.  This past Thursday,
> she visited me for a few hours and we did a bit of training over takeout
> from Dreamland BBQ.
>
> What in the world does that have to do with the XO/DXS/XSCE ecosystem, you
> might be asking?
>
> For one, there's "registration."  Mom entered her Amazon user/pass into the
> Kindle.  Then it was "registered" and she could see the Kindle when she
> looked at her Amazon account from her laptop.
>
> After registration, I asked her to go into her Amazon account to put my
> email address and the Tinderizer (I'll explain later) email address into
> the "approved" email list.  That's so you can send things to
> mom at kindle.comfrom an approved email address and it'll just
> "magically" show up on her
> Kindle.
>
> I installed Calibre on her Windows laptop, which luckily went well.  She
> understood it was like "iTunes for books."  (Mom has an iPhone and an iPad,
> she knows iTunes.)  Then I showed her some free ebook sites where she could
> get content, how to import the downloaded books into Calibre, and how to
> put that content onto the Kindle.
>
> Where Mom was really fascinated was how you can "push" content onto the
> Kindle.  If you don't have a Kindle, here's how it works (remember Mom put
> my email address into the "approved" list):
>
> 1.  I find something interesting that Mom might like to read
> 2.  I email mom at kindle.com that content in a .txt file attachment and
> simply put the word "convert" in the subject
> 3.  Mom connects her Kindle to wifi and it automagically downloads the
> content
>
> Now, Mom is a huge fan of the NYT, she actually pays money to subscribe.  I
> set her up with http://tinderizer.com like I use.  Sometimes the NYT has
> very long articles that I'd like to read later on the e-ink Kindle.
>   Tinderizer is a bookmarklet that, once you set it up (and setup is very
> simple), it's "one click" to push it to the Kindle.  Once the Kindle is
> connected to wifi, that content just "magically" shows up on the device.
>   If I know I'm going to be offline for a while, or just want to sit out on
> the porch in the sunlight, I'll browse for articles to push to the Kindle
> to read later.  Instapaper is another option I've heard good things about,
> but it doesn't sound as simple.
>
> In my case, reading thoughtful, longform articles on my computer screen is
> sometimes difficult, so I quite prefer them on the Kindle's eink screen.
>   And reading offline minimizes distractions.
>
> I know you're still wondering, what does this have to do with the
> XO/DXS/XSCE ecosystem!  The concept of "pushing" content to client devices,
> which then automagically shows up with no effort from the end user.  And
> it's not a link, it's the full content, so the user only needs to have a
> connection for a few minutes while the queued up content is pushed.
>
> Many folks might think Amazon is evil or whatever, but their content
> delivery system is notable and somewhat revolutionary as far as end users
> are concerned.
>
> Also, take note of this Kindle based project:  http://www.worldreader.org/
>
> As we're going into XSCE 0.5 and thinking about value added stuff, lemme
> just throw this concept in.
>
> Anna Schoolfield
> Birmingham
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> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Mon, 7 Oct 2013 14:03:53 +1100
> From: James Cameron <quozl at laptop.org>
> To: xsce-devel at googlegroups.com
> Cc: Server Devel <server-devel at lists.laptop.org>
> Subject: Re: [Server-devel] [XSCE] The concept of "pushing" content to
> 	clients
> Message-ID: <20131007030353.GD19250 at us.netrek.org>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> There seems to be two main ideas here;
>
> - remote control of a device in a multi-device scenario,
>
> - the commanded store and forward of content.
>
> The former is a surprising one to consider in the context of a one
> device per child project.  Which device would be the remote control
> for which other device?  Yes, it's notable, but so is possession of
> more than one device.  If you mean remote control by a device in the
> possession of another, that way seems risky.
>
> The latter might be satisfied with a mail server configured to operate
> without always-on internet service.  It might be wrapped with a web
> mail instance, and local mailing lists for class or interest groups.
> Content would be cached by the server until the mail is deleted.
>
> Device side support for local caching could use a mail client that
> exposes specific attachment types as Journal content entries.
>
> The automatic conversion of specific web pages, as in your NYT
> example, really only works with content that is self-contained.  Once
> a link sends a learner off the page, we're back to square one.
>
> (Consider augmenting the Wikipedia activity on Sugar, to provide links
> to pages that aren't present, which places the download requests in a
> queue for next connectivity event.)
>