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Walter Bender Resigns From OLPC
westlake writes "Walter Bender, the former executive director of MIT's Media Lab, and, in many ways, the tireless workhorse and public face of OLPC, has resigned from OLPC after being reorganized and sidetracked into insignificance. The rumor mill would have it that 'constructionism as children [learn] learning' is being replaced by a much less romantic view of the XO's place in the classroom and XO's tech in the marketplace."
Summary and original speculation were complete BS.
To keep in the spirit of the thread, XP smells worse than your shiny metal ass.
It was the demotion of Bender that prompted Ivan Krstic' to resign last month, so the damage to OLPC by their stupid demotion of Bender is not limited to just the loss of him. I wonder if anyone else will be leaving over this?
Direct Link to Resignation letter
I was going to submit this story after finding it on Digg or Reddit; the headline was focusing on Negreponte(sp?) allegedly wishing to partner with MS to put XP on XO in order to sell more units. After reading the letter and there being no mention of it I decided against submission.
BWAHAHAHAHA!
I am writing this response on one of those laptops, running prerelease Ubuntu Hardy that I have just configured for it.
This laptop is not going to do any 3D modeling or video editing any soon, but for everything that belongs in a classroom it's fine.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
A: The x86 used is already very low power and very high integration, supporting sub-millisecond sleep states. With Amdahl's law being what it is, replacing the processor with a mystic 0 power CPU wouldn't add all that much to battery life. The TOTAL power consumption is 5W already, and the CPU's share of that power budget (when you consider CPU and not the associated control logic for memory, IO, etc) is low.
And in return, x86 compatibility is a good thing, because it opens up a huge world of binary software. For one, x86 is far better supported by just about everybody.
B: The OLPC actually uses a 15 W-Hr LiFeP (Lithium Ferro-Polymer) battery. Which is actually 4x the charge lifespan of LiIon, and has far greater environmental tolerance, and can even be composted for disposal.
Test your net with Netalyzr
Nowhere in his exit statement does Bender contradict the rumors about him being forced out. Instead he gives the standard "leaving to pursue other interests". This is a conventional explanation people give to avoid antagonizing their former colleagues. This concept might be strange to shot-from-the-lip Slashdotters, but it is common among people who don't view life as extended flame war.
You give a quote that seems intended to contradict the story, but doesn't really — this isn't just about whether or not the XO should run Windows. Besides, you don't say who you're quoting. One of your sock puppets, perhaps?
There is no reason to use an x86 processor for the project.
Okay. Is there any reason NOT to use an x86 CPU? There are some great low-power "embedded" CPU solutions out there, but is it accurate to say x86-based CPUs do not and cannot meet those criteria?
The systems has an 800 x 600 display
It's actually 1200x900. I'm not sure where you got your numbers from.
I wonder what else about the device you might be misinformed about?
Negroponte said Bender was burned out after helping to shape OLPC for two years" But Bender already has new plans: to launch an independent effort to further the development of the XOs' homegrown software, known as Sugar, and get it to run on Linux computers other than XOs. "Sugar is in a narrow place and it is ripe to be unleashed," he wrote in an e-mail exchange. The AP article alos goes on to quote Negroponte as saying: "that an overriding insistence on open-source had hampered the XOs, saying Sugar "grew amorphously" and "didn't have a software architect who did it in a crisp way." For instance, the laptops do not support Flash animation, widely used on the Web. "There are several examples like that, that we have to address without worrying about the fundamentalism in some of the open-source community," he said. "One can be an open-source advocate without being an open-source fundamentalist." Negroponte added, Windows might be the sole operating system, and Sugar would be educational software running on top of it. That might disappoint advocates of open-source software who helped bankroll OLPC and cheered the challenge it represented to Microsoft's dominance. Unlike proprietary software like Windows, open-source applications are developed by a community of programmers and the underlying code is freely shared.
If you don't think 3d modeling is useful to learning math, sciences, and engineering, you are a genuine idiot. And if you do not think that video editing can help you learn literature you have no imagination, to boot. But perhaps I'm just misunderstanding you? Regardless, your comment is proof positive that a low slashdot ID doesn't mean anything.
Also no one should learn 3D modeling and video editing on a computer he can carry -- inexperienced user needs massive amount of resources and very large screen to be able to do anything with it.While my laptop is WORLDS ahead of the XO, I have a Compaq nw9440 which is MORE than adequate for learning 3d graphics with its Core Duo, 2GB memory, and nVidia Quadro FX1500 with 1680x1050 resolution. It is in a meganotebook (17") form factor with a three button touchpad and a full keyboard.
Given that many people got their start on an Amiga running Lightwave 3D on, say, a 25MHz processor and with maybe 8MB of RAM, and at NTSC resolutions (even interlaced with overscan you're looking at maybe 800x480 or so on an OCS or ECS Amiga) I'd say you pretty much have no idea what you're talking about.
By the way, google sketchup is a 3d modeler which can be immediately useful in a variety of projects and which doesn't require a degree to use. Perhaps you've heard of it? I bet many kids could learn to use that if they weren't being treated like idiots by arrogant assholes who think they know everything about how everyone else learns.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"