Genius is not so much about new ideas as it is about clarity of ideas. Two people can have the same idea yet it will be genius in the one and mediocrity in the other.
—Kevin Solway

Most computers lose half their value by the time they get to your doorstep...this one has tripled
—#olpc chat

elf's OLPC Journal

This journal documents my experiences with an OLPC laptop. My interests lie in the design of the laptop hardware and software and whether the educational needs of child in a First World country are satisfied by a product designed to satisfy the requirements of a child in the Third World.

Staff Cuts at OLPC

Wed Jan 07 17:47:08 2009

50% of staff working on the OLPC project will be layed off and the remaining staff will work at reduced salaries. Development on Sugar will migrate to be community based.

Intel Classmate Review

hardware

Sat Jan 17 15:34:21 2009

Laptop magazine reviews the Intel Convertible Classmate laptop which converts into a touch-screen tablet which supports both stylus and finger inputs. It was rated 4/5 stars at a price of USD$499.

It wouldn't be fair to compare this 2nd generation Classmate with the XO which is still the first generation. I don't know if the stylus and finger input areas work in the latest versions of the XO OS.

(Aside: my nephew mentioned that he uses the Browse activity the most these days— to visit lego.com. His sister doesn't have an XO because the second G1G1 program never ran in Canada.)

OLPC-2 will Likely use ARM CPU

hardware

Fri Mar 13 13:11:18 2009

OLPC is considering switching from the AMD Geode CPU that the XO is currently based on to an even lower power ARM CPU to reduce the current 5W footprint of the laptop.

The only problem is whether Microsoft is willing to port Windows to the ARM; WinCE already runs on the ARM, but lacks sufficient features for the requirements od the XO-2.

XO-1.5

hardware

Sat Apr 18 18:25:45 2009

On Friday, OLPC announced a refresh of the XO laptop, designated XO-1.5, based on the VIA C7-M CPU. The CPU can be clocked from 400MHz up to 1GHz (which consumes 5W of power). It will have 1GB of SDRAM and 4GB of Flash RAM. Prototypes will be available to developers in September.

Vision vs. Reality

Sun Jun 21 13:14:24 2009

An analysis of the OLPC project comparing the original vision to what the project has actually achieved to date.

So rather than distributing millions of laptops to poor children itself, OLPC has motivated the PC industry to develop lower-cost, education-oriented PCs, providing developing countries with low-cost computing options directly in competition with OLPC's own innovation. In that sense, OLPC's apparent failure may be a step toward broader success in providing a new tool for children in developing countries. However, it is also clear that the PC industry cannot profitably reach millions of the poorest children, so the OLPC objectives might never be achieved through the commercial market alone.

Sugar on a Stick

software

Thu Jul 02 14:21:03 2009

Sugar Labs announced Sugar on a Stick, a learning platform that runs off a USB key. Downloads are available for various operating systems.

The New Future

Tue Nov 03 23:10:43 2009

XO 2.0 has been cancelled and in it place, ready for 2012 will be XO 3.0, a tablet.

luis fernandes / elf@ee.ryerson.ca / OLPC Journal