Prologue of elf's OLPC Journal
Purchase
Mon Nov 12 22:17:27 2007
As promised by an earlier email confirming my registration into the
Give 1 Get One program, I received an email on November 12 about how
to order an One Laptop Per
Child laptop. So I ordered one.
The first problem I encountered was that Canadian provinces
weren't listed in the drop-down menu on the Paypal site. So, I
thought I would be clever and added the province after the city. On
the folling page, the site warned me that I hadn't filled the
province field and supplied the proper drop-down with Canadian
provinces listed. I then submitted my pament successfully.
Only then did I realize that the province appeared twice in the
address and that the postal-code was wrong. Argh! I further realized
that there was no way to fix it since I didn't create a Paypal
account and there was no way to cancel the order and re-order
either.
So I logged into #olpc on irc.freenode.net and pointed out the
Canadian province oversight and my quandry. cjb said someone would fix
the first problem and that I should email paypal at laptop.org for
the second problem— I did so.
By 10PM I hadn't received any reply so I mentioned this on the
chan and I got a helpful suggestion from bemasc about calling olpc at
1-877-70-LAPTOP.
Update Tue Nov 13 11:52:23 2007: I called the LAPTOP number
and was told to call OLPC Customer Service at 1-800-201-7144. I am
currently on hold with a single-song loop interrupted by, "Thank you
for calling, please hold for our next available agent." The song can
best described as a synthesized piano playing a 4-note tune in a
minor key with an improvised coda, backed by synthesized bongos and
strings; think 1980s Frank Mills. Finally talked to Christine at
12:15 and got my postal code corrected.
Udate Tue Nov 13 23:20:04 2007: There was supposed to be a
confirmation email, but I haven't received one. The mail logs show
nothing, other than the 2 announcement emails I have already
received. Comparing this with Amazon's ordering system, the OLPC
ordering process is quite amateruish. They should have hired Amazon
to handle the logistics of ordering and delivery (when I mentioned
this on #olpc, I received a cryptic, "Maybe we tried." response.) I
was told that a company called Brightstar is handling it instead.
Joy of Tech
cartoon
Thu Nov 15 12:23:44 2007
Confirmation Email
Thu Nov 15 21:52:49 2007
I just received a confirmation email about my donation and the
amount charged to my credit card. The email was a
single paragraph of HTML with an attached image. Lovely.
Greenlight
Mon Nov 19 09:41:33 2007
Some good news from Jim Gettys:
<jg> eidolon: whether one is going to get a system by xmas
depends on three things: 1), the presumption that g1g1 orders
are first come, first served, [it is] which I expect is a decent one, 2)
the number of orders by a particular day, 3) the number of
machines Quanta can manufacture and ship in time. From what I
know, you have a decent, but not certain chance.
<jg> then wish Quanta great luck in ramping production. The
good news is that the suspend/resume problem we've been fighting
(and which had been causing us to be reluctant to really
greenlight production) has been found: it is embedded controller
firmware (fixed in next update...). [09:22]
Bitfrost
software security
Tue Nov 20 23:39:03 2007
We have set out to create a system that is both
drastically more secure and provides drastically more usable security
than any mainstream system currently on the market.
With users as young as 5 years old, the security
of the laptop cannot depend on the user's ability to remember a
password. Users cannot be expected to choose passwords when they
first receive computers.
Bitfrost
the security system built into each OLPC. It was invented by Ivan
Krstic, who is featured in the Google Video, with contributions by
Simson Garfinkel.
OLPC Ad, Demo and Review
demo
Wed Nov 21 18:48:01 2007
This TV
ad aired yesterday during a football game; and this is David
Pogue's review of the OLPC. He shows the trick to opening the laptop;
the Google video mentioned that when adults were given one, they
couldn't figure out how to open it; the kids figured it out in 5
minutes.
Ivan Krstic does a more detailed demo
at SIGGRAPH 2007; the startup of the camera application took a
surprisingly long time— about 20 seconds. I asked about it on
#olpc and they have, "vague ideas but no conclusive evidence", why
this is the case.
Deadline Extended
business
Thu Nov 22 12:15:01 2007
Businesswire
is the first to report that the Nov. 26 deadline has been extended to
Dec. 31, to give organizations more time to plan in purchasing bulk
orders. People ordering during the extended period will get their
laptops beginning in 2008.
According to the release, orders have averaged $2M per day.
"A Little Laptop With Big Ambitions"
competition
Sun Nov 25 08:16:24 2007
There are no signs that Mr. Negroponte's project
is in danger of fading away.
WSJ
article summarizing the siyution so far, including competition from
Intel and MS.
From its inception, One Laptop Per Child posed a threat to the
personal-computing dominance of software giant Microsoft and chip
maker Intel. Mr. Negroponte's team, drawn from MIT, designed a
machine that didn't use Windows or Intel chips. It uses the Linux
operating system and other nonproprietary, open-source software,
which users are allowed to tinker with.
Last year, Intel, which normally doesn't sell computers, introduced a
small laptop for developing countries called the Classmate, which
currently goes for between $230 and $300. It has marketed the
computer aggressively, although it stands to make little money on the
initiative. But it hopes to prevent rival Advanced Micro Devices
Inc., or AMD, whose chips are in Mr. Negroponte's competing computer,
from becoming a standard in the developing world.
...
last month, an Intel
representative gave a PowerPoint presentation to a Mongolian official
that offered a "head-to-head comparison" between the Classmate and
the One Laptop machine. Intel claimed the Classmate prevailed in nine
of 13 categories, including processor speed and support for different
operating systems, a copy of the presentation indicates.
Mr. Negroponte says he complained to Intel's chief executive two
weeks ago, then "made peace." Intel and the One Laptop project, he
says, have agreed to work together to design by early January a new
"Intel-based" One Laptop device.
There is also an article, in Spanish, that claims the Intel
Classmate costs $500 in Argentina.
One Beer Chiller Per Child
humour
Mon Nov 26 21:35:17 2007
<olpc_wad> Damn. The USB beer chiller won't run on a stock XO. I'll have to mod
the USB power switch.
<jg> olpc_wad: how much power does it want?
<olpc_wad> USB 1.0, 5.75W
<e1f> wow. you're going to need a bigger boat
<olpc_wad> But it doesn't cool to optimum drinking temperature, only 45F
<mburns> One-USB-Beer-Chiller-Per-Child?
<jg> I thought we could put out that much power; just we'd have to
take some of it from the battery.....
<olpc_wad_> The XO can handle it, but the overcurrent protection will kick in
at 5W. Not to worry, simply populate R281 with a 120K ohm resistor
OLPC in Nigeria
Wed Nov 28 18:58:21 2007
BBC has a story
about a 300 laptop trial-run of the XO in Nigeria. It also has a
video of the Yo-Yo Charger.
Shipping Information
info
Fri Nov 30 15:20:15 2007
On Tuesday, I received an email from laptopgiving.org informing me
that, "the first phase is expected to ship out just prior to the
Holiday's (mid December). The following ship times can range up to 4
months. We will be using UPS as our shipping carrier."
A few days later, a webpage
was posted with more details about shipping (however this information
only applies to U.S. orders.)
Donation Date | Scheduled Delivery Window |
Nov 12 | Dec 14-24 |
Nov 13-15 | Dec 17-31 |
Nov 16-26 | Dec 26 - Jan 15, 2008 |
Nov 27-Dec 31 | Early 2008 |
Boston Globe Report
Sat Dec 01 21:23:23 2007
The Boston Globe has an article about the latest numbers of
laptops sold including news about the lawsuit
by a Nigerian fraudster who likely studied law at Dr. Mbongo's School
of Jurisprudence.
The Globe estimates 190,000 sold via the individual G1G1 program,
no estimates on the G1GM (Get 1 Give Many) program. Peru has ordered
260,000 and a Mexican millionaire has ordered 50,000 for Mexico.
First Deployment
Sat Dec 01 22:32:53 2007
Ivan Krstic has a journal of the first deployment of the OLPC in Uruguay.
Unboxing Pics
hardware
Wed Dec 05 18:47:57 2007
Unboxing
slideshow of a develper
program XO laptop.
Shipping
Sun Dec 09 17:56:16 2007
The laptops should begin shipping tomorrow (Monday). They have
been in Chicago (at a Brightstar warehouse) for about a week, being
loaded/upgraded with the latest OS build.
Pentagram
design
Thu Dec 13 17:58:07 2007
The G1G1 website (and Sugar) was designed by the excellent design
firm Pentagram.
G1G0
Fri Dec 14 22:33:28 2007
XO laptops began shipping on Monday and several people on #olpc
have already received theirs (there seems to be a cluster in MA, but
that could be just because people from MA are hanging out on
#olpc). There are however a few hiccups like one laptop that was DOA,
and one laptop that arrived in an empty box.
OLPC Office
photos
Sat Dec 15 21:14:07 2007
<bernie> posted some pics of the OLPC
office. Note the the cable-management system installed in the
ceiling, the wheelchair accessible kitchen sink, the bare walls of
the reception area (I offered some of my paintings) and Chris "emacs
is my desktop" Ball's Cinema display.
Still Waiting...
Thu Dec 20 23:08:49 2007
A rather unflattering article about OLPC in Macworld.
The Canadian Situation
Fri Dec 21 14:21:36 2007
Oh Canada... We at OLPC are very sorry about the Canadian shipment
situation: we underestimated the time it would take us to fully work
out the import duties and taxes and we were not clear in our
communication to you. We apologize for everyone with a child who will
not receive a laptop this year. You can visit the laptopgiving.org
website to download a gift card that lets your child know that an XO
laptop is on its way; it is obviously not the same as a laptop, but
we hope it helps in some small way. We are working on the logistics
of getting XOs to Canada: everyone should have their XO in the
January/February time frame. The team at OLPC wants to thank everyone
who has thus far participated in Give One Get One. Thanks to the
generosity of Canadians, more than 4000 children in the
least-developed countries will be receiving laptops in early
2008.
—Walter 20:39, 20 December 2007 (EST) wiki.laptop.org
Like I said earlier, they should have contracted Amazon to handle
the shipping, rather than a "global logistics company" called Brightstar.
Update Mon Dec 24 19:57:40 2007: I received an email from
laptopgiving.org explaining the situation as summarized on the wiki.
Intel Quits
politics
Thu Jan 03 21:31:17 2008
Intel quit
the OLPC board after reject a request to abandon it's Classmate PC
and back the XO instead.
Overwhelming Success
Mon Jan 28 18:13:30 2008
On Sunday Jan. 20th, I sent an email to the OLPC service
department asking for an update for my order. I received an
auto-reply that was tagged as spam, by Spamassassin, that a response
would take 3-5 days. Today, 8 ays later, I received a reply telling
me that, "due to the overwhelming success of the G1G1 program", I will
be receiving an email before my laptop ships and that the shipping
dates have been "extended".
Not impressed in the least.
Update Mon Feb 04 18:36:46 2008: Rich
Burridge cancelled
his order. Sad, but understandable. I've stopped caring about my
order.