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

[Anish Mangal]

First, I'm not sure what Anna is describing is push based in a pure
technical sense. The client receiving files must either be always
online or poll some central server to see if there is anything to be
downloaded. To the end user, it's push based, but technically, it's
still polling by the client to see if there is something there and
then pulling stuff from the server

I can think of one use case of this, perhaps there are more... I'm not sure..

The ability for a teacher to reliably send files to children's laptops
has long been requested by a few deployments. In dextrose, we have a
pull based solution, where a teacher copies the file on a webdav
share, which a kid can access from their journal itself, and download.

See: http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/Transfer_to_many_options

This is not push based, and the teacher doesn't _know_ if every kid
has downloaded the file he/she wanted, but works reasonably well.

Perhaps there are other scenarios where push based approach might be
useful, but it also might be tricky considering the environments we
work in.


On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 10:54 AM, Tony Anderson <tony_anderson at usa.net> wrote:
> 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
>> -------------- next part --------------
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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.)
>>
>
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