a) They're not totally absent in the U.S. -- just blessedly rare;) (However, the menace is growing...) There are some famous ones in Washington and, for instance, and I've seen some built in Maryland in the past several years. The mayor of Seattle (otherwise an excellent city!) is a fan of them. Pennsylvania has plenty of them, which is on my list of Reasons to Leave Pennsylvania in a few months;) I've seen way too many accidents (the results, actually) and near accidents, sometimes when I've been either the passenger or the driver of the car, because (as others have pointed out) traffic circles in the U.S. may work smoothly most of the time, but that's not because the rules are followed, only because enough people are used to their unique etiquette. I hate them, consider them zones of lawlessness. People drive nuttily within them, like the high speed version of some parking lots I've been in.
b) They're also called by several names, some of which are probably truly interchangeable, and some of which carry some deeper connotations which are lost both on me and (says me) most other drivers as well. "Rotary" is the term I have known longest, and Massachusetts has plenty of them -- I dread the signs that say "ROTARY AHEAD," which IMO isn't far from "ABANDON YE ALL HOPE." There's also "roundabout" (sounds cute, like a stuffed toy, or a playground ride) and the generic "traffic circle."
On a similar topic Pennsylvania and New Jersey both do something I tend to like, called a "jughead turn" -- to avoid left turns (I guess usually it's paired with their being illegal:)), the driver takes a right along a small loop. On major highways, this is developed into elaborate form as a cloverleaf or even double cloverleaf exit, but on small roads, it's just a jughead:) I dunno if this term is in common use; but it was when my parents were growing up in the 40s and 50s, I think.
(This is not to say that left turns are universally banned in areas with jugheads; not every turn merits one, and left hand turns are not *generally* illegal, only when marked.)
They'll find that cats have long been producing our most valuable resource, and we were just too stupid to do anything but throw it out with the litter, instead of creating the awesome future they've been trying to have us construct for them.
"At the moment it's just a notion, but with a bit of backing I think I could turn it into a concept, and then an idea...."
Until a check is signed, or maybe until I can reach my hand into the wound of a crucified kid-with-XO, I wouldn't count on it.
I do *hope* this happens, and it's clearly not impossible to find systems with laptop-per-kid schemes (like Maine), but this one is couched in such vagaries I'd rather not say much about it at all, until / unless purchase orders are completed, notarized, dabbed with the blood of a majority of councilmen (or whatever body), and on display both to the in-person public and online.
In some places (though perhaps not in all situations, sorry, I dunno the scope of this), "loser pays" is the rule -- but not in the U.S. Many people think that "loser pays" would be a good way to cut down on frivolous lawsuits of the SLAPP variety.
I think that in some cases (I'm thinking of a suit against Ollie North a few years back, and am procrastinating too many other things to look for a link right now), the judge may as part of his ruling make the instigating party responsible for the costs of the nominally innocent defendant.
There are costs, sure -- but when companies are shopping the tax-funded freebies "market," they don't necessarily have to actually move -- just make it clear that they're stretching their legs as *if* to move;)
You're right, labor and the necessary chunky connections to power + network are not trivial, but they're probably a lot easier than building a typical secure data hosting site;)
If they'd switch to a sales-tax only regime (along the lines of what there is in Washington, Nevada, Florida, New Hampshire, Tennesee, and a few others), Virginia is a state I'd definitely consider living again -- Blacksburg is a nice little town, and there are beautiful mountains, a nice stretch of beach, etc.
Income taxes all suck worse than sales taxes, even though this one sure sucks for Maryland (and Maryland's programmers, esp.).
If you have a business which can be housed in a portable structure of any kind, it makes it more likely you can move it across a border (state or national) when that makes sense, or just seem inclined to do so if the local powermongers decide they want more (of your) pie.
Coal mines? Hard to do it.
Hospitals? Difficult.
Big factories? Tough.
Data centers? If built into containers or container-friendly, you can start packing now;)
(On the other hand, it also means that data-centric companies can angle for that famous and annoying "corporate welfare" by flirting with various states and municipalities seeking better goodies like tax abatements, "free" infrastructure additions, etc.)
More versatile, has a camera, reads a wider variety of formats. It's a (funny little, purpose-built, not-your-ordinary) *laptop*, but it has a book-reading mode and a 200dpi screen (in monochrome mode).
A bit bigger than the Kindle, sure, but sure seems like the one I'd rather have in my backpack / fallout shelter / carry-on bag. After all, does the Kindle have a game pad?:)
I like lots of the KDE apps (K3B is awesome, though the Gnome burning apps are now quite good as well). Yep -- it's nice that I can run the Gnome desktop (which I find very pleasant, though I like others as well) and KDE apps. I look forward to Okular as my PDF reader, for instance, but Kpdf is probably the fastest and more flexible of the various PDF readers on my system at present.
What you've outlined is true but hardly the fault of the PD:) It is shameful and caustic, though -- insane punishments possible on the books make pleading very attractive. (Gee, only 3 years, instead of a statutorily possible 12? Awesome!)
Most cases end up pleading, Yes -- but I have witnessed PDs aggressively defending clients when the charges are basically bogus. Also, no lawyer can force someone to plead guilty, even if he suspects that the client *is* guilty -- but he can advise based on previous bitter experience what likely outcomes look like.
Kindle costs as much as an OLPC. (That is, as much as getting one in your hands through the give-one-get-one program.)
The OLPC (in monochrome mode) has a 7.5" 900x1200 display.
The OLPC is also a (tiny, low-power) laptop computer capable of reading your average PDF (and DjVu) file, plus it has a video camera and an SD slot. It can sit in front of you propped up on its base, or it can be held book like in tablet mode. (A read-only tablet, I realize.)
I know they're not in "the same category" -- only, what category do you mean? For me, for many purposes, they *are* in the same category, except the XO seems to win in all categories except pure battery life, and really, considering how small the XO's power adapter is, and that I have an inverter in my car, this does not bother me much. The XO is also a bit bigger, but they'er both in "small backpack" range, anyhow, not in pocket-sized.
(I'd rather be able to purchase some spare XO batteries, though -- anyone know where that will be likely?)
I wonder if Quanta's under an agreement not to make a run of XOs in deepest black or blandest putty and sell them as "featureful eBook readers."
I suspect I'm missing something cool abuot Kindle which throws off this comparison, but... well, I guess I am.
I can't say that a large chunk *aren't*, but I've met (through a clinical internship this semester) many of the folks at the Camden (NJ) Defender's office, and while there are certainly touches / streaks / rivers of justified cynicism and battlefield humor, many of the folks there are basically idealistic and hard working, and most of them aren't very young. They're like a really good law firm with terrible pay and computers straight out of Bedrock.
They're overburdened with cases, I'd say, but they aren't overworked in the same way some private attorneys are. They'll freely tell you (if you are a criminal defendent in Camden, NJ, which I hope is not the case) that if you have the money to hire a private attorney, you should. Not because the result will be any better (you're going to be hard pressed to find people who know the system or the law any better), but because a) it makes things easier on them and b) if you like to talk with your attorney more frequently, those guys are billing you aggressively and therefore happy to talk... at length.
(In NJ, the PD is a statewide agency, with locations / branches around the state, I think one per county. Some places, that's not the case. Also, the PD -- contrary to my initial thought -- is not "free" for the clients, just very cheap vs. a private attorney. They don't collect every bill, but some percentage.)
I bet a lot of people "admit" to "breaking the law" by exceeding posted speed limits, too. (Piggybacking Wi-Fi isn't always against the law, though, anyhow.)
Also, many people admit to reading sections of books at bookstores *even while not actively sipping coffee from an in-store cafe.* (Scandalous!)
Lots of people intentionally share their wireless access points, and have no objection to casual use by others. (Other's *do* mind, whether or not they bother to encrypt or contain their signal. Not saying otherwise.)
Some ISPs object, others don't care, others actively encourage it.
I know I've sometimes found directions when lost by finding an unsecured WiFi connection and firing up google maps. Do I feel especially bad about that? No, not really. I also don't feel bad about the several times I've used freely supplied, tax-funded wireless access points at libraries and some municipal buildings.
When I'm again earning money (rather than hemorrhaging it in the form of tuition), I intend to have at least some degree of accessible wireless from my home that others can use for quick connections. NoCatAuth (which I haven't looked at in a few years) seems like a smart way to set this up. I'd *like* people to be able to pop a quick email through a random wifi connection I provide, and I'd like to be able to find the same if I'm visiting another city.
Is it possible for Bad People to do Bad Things with unsecured wireless, like trigger IEDs spread misleading information through personal ads, and upload delicious recipes to North Korea? Sure, I guess -- just like it's possible for matches to be used to start forest fires. Context is everything. To assume that piggyback use is nefarious, or harmful, or universally unwanted, is silly.
My G3 500MHz iBook runs Ubuntu PPC pretty well. It might never get called snappy, but it works OK:)
Fluxbuntu might work even better for this role, but since the CD drive on that machine is pretty flaky, I've been reluctant to risk much change.
Is it better than OS X? Depends on what you seek: I enjoy a nice Gnome desktop, and though I'm not terribly unhappy with the OS X experience, I am closer to neutral on that front. I like having Ubuntu running on a different architecture, too, partly just because I can.
The long history of tax protest includes many people whose focus was not primarily on the immorality of coercion on the collection side, but on the spending side you mention. I think the government should not be in many of the businesses it's gotten into, and that these are pretty clear deviations from what a free society would include.
Hey, thanks for the info! That's very encouraging -- I don't care all that much about the Windows / OS X possibilities for myself, since I use either of those only rarely, but I would nonetheless like it if the XO can serve as a transparent bridge given some the development of some sort of software for those users, too. I hope you're right that there are Fedora (and, unless things are too tied to Fedora per se) drivers which would allow connection to the mesh from another Linux laptop.
(In both cases,though, I must admit confusion as to why it should require a different driver on the client-laptop side vs.that that needed to access any other wireless network. To the client laptop -- that is, one which is seeing the OLPC as a bridge to a wider network to which the OLPC is connected -- would the signal appear different from that from any other 802.11 base station? I know -- or at least my recollection is -- that an iBook can be set up under OS X a a base station, sharing an ethernet connection via its internal airport card to other wireless equipped laptops nearby. It seems to me that this is roughly equivalent, only sharing a single wireless connection rather than a wired one. However, my technical knowledge is thin as usual on this front, so please phrase any response in large, simple letters;))
What did you think of the machine's keyboard?:) That's my biggest expected annoyance with it. Not that there might not be other annoyances, but that's the one I anticipate most clearly.
It says (somewhere on the OLPC site, that is) that they're uncertain about exact shipping dates, and imply that early orders get early machines, rather than just [big pool of orders] drawing from [big pool of laptops].
I do hope they sell out, though -- would make a fun story;)
The browser, anyhow, is at least a variant of Firefox, right?
And AbiWord is there (in the guise of the writing activity) -- slimmed down, OK, but it's "normal" enough to write letters, etc.
As you say, plenty of horsepower for the tasks it's designed for, and enough for playing Flash videos, shooting little movies with the built-in camera, etc. I considered an EEE (much better *looking* IMO), but definitely prefer a laptop engineered to be kid-tough. (Isn't that the slogan of some toy company?)
Think-o i there: Should read "Are you truly in favor of secession of the Northwestern states into an independent country, and if so, could you shed some light on what you'd favor in the result?
A thought-experiment question I've been meaning to ask you for a while, keep forgetting, and Hey, look, an interview;)
Are you truly in favor of secession of the Northwestern states into an independent country, and if so, could you shed some light on you'd favor in the result?
I don't mean complete with a war (why this is just a thought experiment), but I wonder if you could outline how you anticipate such a country would look and operate. Keep Washington / Oregon / etc as separate entities with unique approaches to questions like income taxes, gambling, etc? Do you think some form of (awfully named) "universal health care system" would emerge? What geographic area would you draw the red pen around on the map? How much would you charge Californians to visit? In what aspect of the resulting economy would you welcome a free market, and in which ones would you not?
Yes, it's been mentioned many times already (justly, IMO), but that T-Mobile deal might be even better than it seems: if you were already in the market for that service (I've considered similar things, esp. when I was driving around the country much more a few years ago, but mostly used per-day service at places like Flying J truckstops), and were willing to fork over the considerable cash for it (just under $360, and I suspect that price is pre-tax -- can anyone clarify that?), this deal is a bit like getting a subsidized phone with a cell-phone contract. (Hmm -- come to think of it, web-appliance laptops might be a cool perq to make such things attractive;))
Playing casually (but I think reasonably) with the numbers is what led me to $64 in the subject line -- by that I mean $424-$360 (OLPC two-fer deal, inclusive of shipping, less the rack-rate for the T-Mobile access). It definitely swung me from heavily-considering to have-now-actually-purchased.
I have not yet even tried to find, never mind read, the fine print associated with T-Mobile sign-up, where they ask for the drop of blood and have you relate your sexual history while lying in the coffin, etc, but I am encouraged to be hopeful by this phrasing:
T-Mobile HotSpot broadband Internet service is available at more than 8,500 locations throughout the United States. Your complimentary year of service is valued at more than $350! Just use any Wi-Fi-enabled device, such as your laptop computer or a Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phone, and you can connect and communicate your way.
Hopefully someone who is currently using T-Mobile's service can comment on this; do you need to register each device with T-Mobile, and if Yes, can you register more than one? (That "or" before "Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone" could swing either way) Or is it a simple password scheme, so as long as you supply the right login-password, you're free to beam and receive?
Worst case (not bad) scenario, if it's strictly for one-device-on-a-contract, is that you choose which of your Wi-Fi devices you like best or find will be used most likely in Hot-Spot situations, and put that one one. It specifically does not limit you to using the XO as the connected device, even if that's the implication of what people would want to do. (If it *is* limited to one device, I think it'll be my XO that gets the honors.)
One more thought on this topic: A best-case scenario I see in several locations wrt the capabilities of the internal antennae is 2km (unobstructed), which (thanks to a quick googling) I now know to be about one and a quarter miles. Let's assume that's wildly, fraudulently inaccurate, and 1/4 of a mile is more reasonable. Or even 1/8 of a mile. If it adds even a hundred feet to your (my) typical distances for reasonable reception, that means that the area within which you can be connected to one of these hotspots (or any Wi-Fi transponder, of course!) is vastly increased. (The new circle modulo the old circle...) I could definitely use that!
(Now, if only the mesh networking could be cajoled to work as DHCP/NAT/repeater droids for ordinary 802.11 base stations...*)
timothy
* If that already works, awesome! My impression is that the mesh networking stuff requires upstream cooperation from the OLPC routers. Would be happy to be proven wrong!
A thermometer-style disply, or maybe an odometer? Such displays reached a nearly baroque complexity when counting hits to personal web pages was the cool thing to do, so you know it's possible;)
I'd like to see some sort of active feedback about the sale, the same way Woot offers lots of little statistics (how many people bought more than one? Where do the sales cluster? etc.)
Why? Curiosity on my part, but also I think it might be a good sales tool. Some people might buy because the sale's going slower than expected, and they want to push it faster (there are clearly a lot of people excited about OLPC as a concept), others might buy sooner rather than later because extrapolating current figures might mean they'll be gone by the time they *had* planned to make a purchase, if at all.
*Is* there a sales meter / stats page somewhere, which I'm just missing? Wouldn't be the first time, or even the 101st...
Slashdot Mirror
What? No room for alternative religious celebrants? What kind of compression is *that*?! :)
timothy
a) They're not totally absent in the U.S. -- just blessedly rare ;) (However, the menace is growing ...) There are some famous ones in Washington and, for instance, and I've seen some built in Maryland in the past several years. The mayor of Seattle (otherwise an excellent city!) is a fan of them. Pennsylvania has plenty of them, which is on my list of Reasons to Leave Pennsylvania in a few months ;) I've seen way too many accidents (the results, actually) and near accidents, sometimes when I've been either the passenger or the driver of the car, because (as others have pointed out) traffic circles in the U.S. may work smoothly most of the time, but that's not because the rules are followed, only because enough people are used to their unique etiquette. I hate them, consider them zones of lawlessness. People drive nuttily within them, like the high speed version of some parking lots I've been in.
:)), the driver takes a right along a small loop. On major highways, this is developed into elaborate form as a cloverleaf or even double cloverleaf exit, but on small roads, it's just a jughead :) I dunno if this term is in common use; but it was when my parents were growing up in the 40s and 50s, I think.
b) They're also called by several names, some of which are probably truly interchangeable, and some of which carry some deeper connotations which are lost both on me and (says me) most other drivers as well. "Rotary" is the term I have known longest, and Massachusetts has plenty of them -- I dread the signs that say "ROTARY AHEAD," which IMO isn't far from "ABANDON YE ALL HOPE." There's also "roundabout" (sounds cute, like a stuffed toy, or a playground ride) and the generic "traffic circle."
On a similar topic Pennsylvania and New Jersey both do something I tend to like, called a "jughead turn" -- to avoid left turns (I guess usually it's paired with their being illegal
(This is not to say that left turns are universally banned in areas with jugheads; not every turn merits one, and left hand turns are not *generally* illegal, only when marked.)
timothy
"If only OLPC could get Dvorak to declare them a failure in advance, its fortune would be assuredly bright!"
Thanks, John!
timothy
They'll find that cats have long been producing our most valuable resource, and we were just too stupid to do anything but throw it out with the litter, instead of creating the awesome future they've been trying to have us construct for them.
timothy
"At the moment it's just a notion, but with a bit of backing I think I could turn it into a concept, and then an idea. ..."
Until a check is signed, or maybe until I can reach my hand into the wound of a crucified kid-with-XO, I wouldn't count on it.
I do *hope* this happens, and it's clearly not impossible to find systems with laptop-per-kid schemes (like Maine), but this one is couched in such vagaries I'd rather not say much about it at all, until / unless purchase orders are completed, notarized, dabbed with the blood of a majority of councilmen (or whatever body), and on display both to the in-person public and online.
timothy
Pamela? Pamela, do you see that big bat symbol in the sky?
timothy
In some places (though perhaps not in all situations, sorry, I dunno the scope of this), "loser pays" is the rule -- but not in the U.S. Many people think that "loser pays" would be a good way to cut down on frivolous lawsuits of the SLAPP variety.
I think that in some cases (I'm thinking of a suit against Ollie North a few years back, and am procrastinating too many other things to look for a link right now), the judge may as part of his ruling make the instigating party responsible for the costs of the nominally innocent defendant.
timothy
There are costs, sure -- but when companies are shopping the tax-funded freebies "market," they don't necessarily have to actually move -- just make it clear that they're stretching their legs as *if* to move ;)
;)
You're right, labor and the necessary chunky connections to power + network are not trivial, but they're probably a lot easier than building a typical secure data hosting site
timothy
If they'd switch to a sales-tax only regime (along the lines of what there is in Washington, Nevada, Florida, New Hampshire, Tennesee, and a few others), Virginia is a state I'd definitely consider living again -- Blacksburg is a nice little town, and there are beautiful mountains, a nice stretch of beach, etc.
Income taxes all suck worse than sales taxes, even though this one sure sucks for Maryland (and Maryland's programmers, esp.).
timothy
If you have a business which can be housed in a portable structure of any kind, it makes it more likely you can move it across a border (state or national) when that makes sense, or just seem inclined to do so if the local powermongers decide they want more (of your) pie.
;)
Coal mines? Hard to do it.
Hospitals? Difficult.
Big factories? Tough.
Data centers? If built into containers or container-friendly, you can start packing now
(On the other hand, it also means that data-centric companies can angle for that famous and annoying "corporate welfare" by flirting with various states and municipalities seeking better goodies like tax abatements, "free" infrastructure additions, etc.)
timothy
More versatile, has a camera, reads a wider variety of formats. It's a (funny little, purpose-built, not-your-ordinary) *laptop*, but it has a book-reading mode and a 200dpi screen (in monochrome mode).
:)
A bit bigger than the Kindle, sure, but sure seems like the one I'd rather have in my backpack / fallout shelter / carry-on bag. After all, does the Kindle have a game pad?
timothy
Same here.
I like lots of the KDE apps (K3B is awesome, though the Gnome burning apps are now quite good as well). Yep -- it's nice that I can run the Gnome desktop (which I find very pleasant, though I like others as well) and KDE apps. I look forward to Okular as my PDF reader, for instance, but Kpdf is probably the fastest and more flexible of the various PDF readers on my system at present.
timothy
What you've outlined is true but hardly the fault of the PD :) It is shameful and caustic, though -- insane punishments possible on the books make pleading very attractive. (Gee, only 3 years, instead of a statutorily possible 12? Awesome!)
Most cases end up pleading, Yes -- but I have witnessed PDs aggressively defending clients when the charges are basically bogus. Also, no lawyer can force someone to plead guilty, even if he suspects that the client *is* guilty -- but he can advise based on previous bitter experience what likely outcomes look like.
timothy
Kindle costs as much as an OLPC. (That is, as much as getting one in your hands through the give-one-get-one program.)
... well, I guess I am.
The OLPC (in monochrome mode) has a 7.5" 900x1200 display.
The OLPC is also a (tiny, low-power) laptop computer capable of reading your average PDF (and DjVu) file, plus it has a video camera and an SD slot. It can sit in front of you propped up on its base, or it can be held book like in tablet mode. (A read-only tablet, I realize.)
I know they're not in "the same category" -- only, what category do you mean? For me, for many purposes, they *are* in the same category, except the XO seems to win in all categories except pure battery life, and really, considering how small the XO's power adapter is, and that I have an inverter in my car, this does not bother me much. The XO is also a bit bigger, but they'er both in "small backpack" range, anyhow, not in pocket-sized.
(I'd rather be able to purchase some spare XO batteries, though -- anyone know where that will be likely?)
I wonder if Quanta's under an agreement not to make a run of XOs in deepest black or blandest putty and sell them as "featureful eBook readers."
I suspect I'm missing something cool abuot Kindle which throws off this comparison, but
timothy
I can't say that a large chunk *aren't*, but I've met (through a clinical internship this semester) many of the folks at the Camden (NJ) Defender's office, and while there are certainly touches / streaks / rivers of justified cynicism and battlefield humor, many of the folks there are basically idealistic and hard working, and most of them aren't very young. They're like a really good law firm with terrible pay and computers straight out of Bedrock.
... at length.
They're overburdened with cases, I'd say, but they aren't overworked in the same way some private attorneys are. They'll freely tell you (if you are a criminal defendent in Camden, NJ, which I hope is not the case) that if you have the money to hire a private attorney, you should. Not because the result will be any better (you're going to be hard pressed to find people who know the system or the law any better), but because a) it makes things easier on them and b) if you like to talk with your attorney more frequently, those guys are billing you aggressively and therefore happy to talk
(In NJ, the PD is a statewide agency, with locations / branches around the state, I think one per county. Some places, that's not the case. Also, the PD -- contrary to my initial thought -- is not "free" for the clients, just very cheap vs. a private attorney. They don't collect every bill, but some percentage.)
timothy
I bet a lot of people "admit" to "breaking the law" by exceeding posted speed limits, too. (Piggybacking Wi-Fi isn't always against the law, though, anyhow.)
Also, many people admit to reading sections of books at bookstores *even while not actively sipping coffee from an in-store cafe.* (Scandalous!)
Lots of people intentionally share their wireless access points, and have no objection to casual use by others. (Other's *do* mind, whether or not they bother to encrypt or contain their signal. Not saying otherwise.)
Some ISPs object, others don't care, others actively encourage it.
I know I've sometimes found directions when lost by finding an unsecured WiFi connection and firing up google maps. Do I feel especially bad about that? No, not really. I also don't feel bad about the several times I've used freely supplied, tax-funded wireless access points at libraries and some municipal buildings.
When I'm again earning money (rather than hemorrhaging it in the form of tuition), I intend to have at least some degree of accessible wireless from my home that others can use for quick connections. NoCatAuth (which I haven't looked at in a few years) seems like a smart way to set this up. I'd *like* people to be able to pop a quick email through a random wifi connection I provide, and I'd like to be able to find the same if I'm visiting another city.
Is it possible for Bad People to do Bad Things with unsecured wireless, like trigger IEDs spread misleading information through personal ads, and upload delicious recipes to North Korea? Sure, I guess -- just like it's possible for matches to be used to start forest fires. Context is everything. To assume that piggyback use is nefarious, or harmful, or universally unwanted, is silly.
timothy
My G3 500MHz iBook runs Ubuntu PPC pretty well. It might never get called snappy, but it works OK :)
Fluxbuntu might work even better for this role, but since the CD drive on that machine is pretty flaky, I've been reluctant to risk much change.
Is it better than OS X? Depends on what you seek: I enjoy a nice Gnome desktop, and though I'm not terribly unhappy with the OS X experience, I am closer to neutral on that front. I like having Ubuntu running on a different architecture, too, partly just because I can.
timothy
Quite agreed :)
The long history of tax protest includes many people whose focus was not primarily on the immorality of coercion on the collection side, but on the spending side you mention. I think the government should not be in many of the businesses it's gotten into, and that these are pretty clear deviations from what a free society would include.
timothy
Hey, thanks for the info! That's very encouraging -- I don't care all that much about the Windows / OS X possibilities for myself, since I use either of those only rarely, but I would nonetheless like it if the XO can serve as a transparent bridge given some the development of some sort of software for those users, too. I hope you're right that there are Fedora (and, unless things are too tied to Fedora per se) drivers which would allow connection to the mesh from another Linux laptop.
,though, I must admit confusion as to why it should require a different driver on the client-laptop side vs .that that needed to access any other wireless network. To the client laptop -- that is, one which is seeing the OLPC as a bridge to a wider network to which the OLPC is connected -- would the signal appear different from that from any other 802.11 base station? I know -- or at least my recollection is -- that an iBook can be set up under OS X a a base station, sharing an ethernet connection via its internal airport card to other wireless equipped laptops nearby. It seems to me that this is roughly equivalent, only sharing a single wireless connection rather than a wired one. However, my technical knowledge is thin as usual on this front, so please phrase any response in large, simple letters ;))
:) That's my biggest expected annoyance with it. Not that there might not be other annoyances, but that's the one I anticipate most clearly.
(In both cases
What did you think of the machine's keyboard?
timothy
It says (somewhere on the OLPC site, that is) that they're uncertain about exact shipping dates, and imply that early orders get early machines, rather than just [big pool of orders] drawing from [big pool of laptops].
;)
I do hope they sell out, though -- would make a fun story
timothy
The browser, anyhow, is at least a variant of Firefox, right?
And AbiWord is there (in the guise of the writing activity) -- slimmed down, OK, but it's "normal" enough to write letters, etc.
As you say, plenty of horsepower for the tasks it's designed for, and enough for playing Flash videos, shooting little movies with the built-in camera, etc. I considered an EEE (much better *looking* IMO), but definitely prefer a laptop engineered to be kid-tough. (Isn't that the slogan of some toy company?)
timothy
Think-o i there: Should read "Are you truly in favor of secession of the Northwestern states into an independent country, and if so, could you shed some light on what you'd favor in the result?
Brian:
;)
A thought-experiment question I've been meaning to ask you for a while, keep forgetting, and Hey, look, an interview
Are you truly in favor of secession of the Northwestern states into an independent country, and if so, could you shed some light on you'd favor in the result?
I don't mean complete with a war (why this is just a thought experiment), but I wonder if you could outline how you anticipate such a country would look and operate. Keep Washington / Oregon / etc as separate entities with unique approaches to questions like income taxes, gambling, etc? Do you think some form of (awfully named) "universal health care system" would emerge? What geographic area would you draw the red pen around on the map? How much would you charge Californians to visit? In what aspect of the resulting economy would you welcome a free market, and in which ones would you not?
Cheers!
timothy
Playing casually (but I think reasonably) with the numbers is what led me to $64 in the subject line -- by that I mean $424-$360 (OLPC two-fer deal, inclusive of shipping, less the rack-rate for the T-Mobile access). It definitely swung me from heavily-considering to have-now-actually-purchased.
I have not yet even tried to find, never mind read, the fine print associated with T-Mobile sign-up, where they ask for the drop of blood and have you relate your sexual history while lying in the coffin, etc, but I am encouraged to be hopeful by this phrasing:
Hopefully someone who is currently using T-Mobile's service can comment on this; do you need to register each device with T-Mobile, and if Yes, can you register more than one? (That "or" before "Wi-Fi enabled mobile phone" could swing either way) Or is it a simple password scheme, so as long as you supply the right login-password, you're free to beam and receive?
Worst case (not bad) scenario, if it's strictly for one-device-on-a-contract, is that you choose which of your Wi-Fi devices you like best or find will be used most likely in Hot-Spot situations, and put that one one. It specifically does not limit you to using the XO as the connected device, even if that's the implication of what people would want to do. (If it *is* limited to one device, I think it'll be my XO that gets the honors.)
One more thought on this topic: A best-case scenario I see in several locations wrt the capabilities of the internal antennae is 2km (unobstructed), which (thanks to a quick googling) I now know to be about one and a quarter miles. Let's assume that's wildly, fraudulently inaccurate, and 1/4 of a mile is more reasonable. Or even 1/8 of a mile. If it adds even a hundred feet to your (my) typical distances for reasonable reception, that means that the area within which you can be connected to one of these hotspots (or any Wi-Fi transponder, of course!) is vastly increased. (The new circle modulo the old circle
(Now, if only the mesh networking could be cajoled to work as DHCP/NAT/repeater droids for ordinary 802.11 base stations
timothy
* If that already works, awesome! My impression is that the mesh networking stuff requires upstream cooperation from the OLPC routers. Would be happy to be proven wrong!
Is there one?
;)
...
A thermometer-style disply, or maybe an odometer? Such displays reached a nearly baroque complexity when counting hits to personal web pages was the cool thing to do, so you know it's possible
I'd like to see some sort of active feedback about the sale, the same way Woot offers lots of little statistics (how many people bought more than one? Where do the sales cluster? etc.)
Why? Curiosity on my part, but also I think it might be a good sales tool. Some people might buy because the sale's going slower than expected, and they want to push it faster (there are clearly a lot of people excited about OLPC as a concept), others might buy sooner rather than later because extrapolating current figures might mean they'll be gone by the time they *had* planned to make a purchase, if at all.
*Is* there a sales meter / stats page somewhere, which I'm just missing? Wouldn't be the first time, or even the 101st
Cheers,
timothy