Your scepticism is well founded. I have been running a more expansive project, called Open Slate, for over five years, and have never gotten much interest. My project has a textbook piece called Chalk Dust. From its inception I did not think it would look or act quite like Wikipedia, but to help jump start the program I set up a wikimedia site. Nothing happening there. Last year I gave up on the public school system and turned to homeschoolers. Nothing there yet, either, in spite of my offer to teach a class for free. The big problem appears to be the hope, on the part of subject matter experts, that they will make money writing textbooks.
What about pheromones on plastic? Recently my cat relieved herself on my Apple eMate. (Bracing for deluge of wit.) So far it remains dead, and replacements aren't expensive, so this may be moot. But, if it does come back to life, what are some electronics compatible ways to get rid of that smell?
My celeron based eee 900 requires about 15 watts to idle with the screen still on. Perhaps we could put generators with pedals under everyone's cubicle desk and have them power their own computers? Not only would we be green, but we'd also solve America's obesity problem!
How about making the Wii so that the only power source is the Fit pad? Before you could play other games you would have to charge up a big storage capacitor. This ought to make a significant improvement on the world-wide increase in child obesity.
Oh yeah, there is the OLPC's hand crank and foot pedal power. If it's good for poor kids then its good for rich kids, and they actually need more exercise.
basing this on my own internet-connected undersupervsed childhood in the suburbs which I might add, turned out pretty much OK.
OK? Is it possible to post comments on/. and still be OK? I'm not so sure... I guess maybe it depends on the limit set by "pretty much." See, I think of/. in a Slaughterhouse-Five sort of way; if you are here you cannot be normal. And I am here.
I agree with your view; this story is fud. The concerns about abuse of security may be well intentioned but nevertheless reek of paranoia. Third world == evil dictators == child abuse. These people need to get out and travel more. As for the technical issues of key escrow, is there a better solution given the context? I can't think of one, not unless you impose a pre-requisit that all users must be highly literate and live amongst well educated adults. The way it is may not be perfect, but you have to start somewhere.
Anyone interested in contributing to open-source textbooks should visit the Open Slate Project. The textbook piece has a wiki up and is looking for submissions. The reason why open-source textbooks have not been a success is the difficulty in accessing them. The Open Slate Project intends to solve the problem of bringing IT into the classroom, not as a subject for study so much as a tool for learning through communication.
The good news is that OLPC is not the only possible platform, and we can keep working on this without them. The bad news is that OLPC has the mind-share, and that's going to be hard to fight, especially with Microsoft behind them.
A couple of things. First, I invite anyone who has become disenchanted with OLPC to join us at the Open Slate Project. Our view of the computer, software, and textbooks is slightly different than what Bruce described, especially in that Chalk Dust, the courseware portion, is not intended to be implemented with E-books.
To be honest, Open Slate is not as far along as OLPC, but we have been making progress. Our audience is not poor, third-world kids as much as everyday kids in brick-and-mortar schools as well as homeschoolers.
The resistance I have encountered with regards to Chalk Dust replacing commercial textbooks has so far come from potential authors. A successful book is a welcome supplement to a university professor's pay. To a lesser extent, so are payments for reviews of journal submissions. But I believe our greatest challenge to overcome is apathy... professors admit they select books for class without knowing what the cost. It is to our advantage that the high cost of textbooks recently became headline news.
being that I am not well-informed on the subject of educational pedagogy, I really can't say how well the software actually achieves its core tasks
All too often those who claim proficiency in pedagogy are merely hiding their lack of brilliance behind a stack of journal articles and study results. I draw inspiration from Shin'ichi Suzuki, founder of Talent Education, who with no formal training in education single-handedly created one of the most successfull methods of teaching music to children. Back in the 70s Suzuki was widely criticized by American violin pedagogues who denounced him as a crackpot. The Suzuki method was built on a common sense view of learning which begins with this observation: children naturally learn their mother tongue without the help of experts. Therefore, children know how to learn, and mothers are the best teachers.
Now apply that view to homeschooling and an interesting picture develops. Parents are fully qualified to teach young children. As children get older they benefit from subject matter experts, but it does not require a brick-and-morter school to provide them. K-12 teachers complain about the lack of parent involvement, especially as the children get older. With homeschoolers, the parent is always involved.
how does that mesh with a core learning curriculum based on The Three R's?
Hold on, there! Who says education has a core of three R's? Or a core of anything? This is just pedagogical pablum passed along year after year as if it were inscribed in stone by the almighty himself. Stringing together Python scripts could very well be much more relavent to today's children.
Really? tbh, I havent researched this much, but its smooth sailing on my thinkpad T23. Sure its an older notebook, so the drivers have had longer to stabilize, but I get all my power management junk.
-It properly drops the processor into sleep modes (confirmed by powertop)
-It parks the HDD after a set time
-It suspends/sleeps/resumes fine, including bringing wifi back
-I get 3 hours out of it, which is exactly what the specs say I should get.
So I'm not so sure the situation is as abysmal as you suggest.
Two things:
1. You did not mention CPU speed throttling. With newer, faster CPUs this is vital to long battery life. I run FreeBSD 7.0 on a Dell Latitude D830, with dual core CPU. The OS sees and uses both CPUs automatically, but CPU speed control is, so far, strictly manual. Gnome has a panel thingy called "CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor" that I can use to set the speed as low was 800MHz with little apparent affect. What I want is for this to be automatic, with the CPU barely ticking over when there is nothing to do.
2. The success of ACPI is dependent on the BIOS. In turn, BIOS suppliers tend to make ACPI code which works with Windows without consideration for the standard, and Microsoft does not follow the standard. ACPI as implemented on Linux and the BSDs begins at strict conformance. The fiddle mentioned in another post is the process of getting a broken BIOS working with a "correct" ACPI implementation. Since every manufacturer comes up with their own version, there is some variety in what is broken.
Speaking of broken, on my D830 sleep mode works fine in Windows XP, but in FreeBSD it never wakes up. If I were to fiddle enough I might get it working, but I have otherthings to do.
I spent Sunday afternoon wrestling with my neighbor's XP box to get it functioning after a mass of malware infections. I got rid of everything except the above mentioned Zango / Fastclick stuff. Every time IE opens, two more windows open on ads that rotate automatically. AdAware did not find these. I told him to keep updating AdAware daily and scanning, thinking they might find a way to get rid of it.
Anybody have a removal process? Again, it's Windows XP and IE (was 6, I just upgraded him to 7).
What is it a "2girls1cup?" One cup? As in a bra cup? A mono bra? This is gross? A metaphor, then? "My cup runeth over." We all know what "runeth over" means. I've never needed two girls to run mine over, or run over mine, but I can imagine. Not so gross. I think maybe you do not understand what is gross. Because what is gross to you is not gross to everyone else, and you are not in charge.
... so take this with a heaping dose of salt.
He thinks that it goes against the Japanese culture to use a technology without paying for it, that it shows disrespect to not pay for software licenses. He is not even allowed to consider using Linux or any other OSS for that matter.
A mountain of salt; so why mod it 5 Informative? I agree that Japanese culture results in less petty crime. Japanese cities are as safe as any to walk around in even at night. To the extent that using COMMERCIAL software without paying for it is theft, then I agree that the Japanese as a group are unlikely to steal. LICENSES do not always require payment. Anyone who believes that FOSS must be paid for is simply uninformed, and let me assure you that, as a group, the Japanese are not stupid. I offer as further proof that many Japanese are avid supporters of FOSS. I happen to work a lot with FreeBSD and the Japanese are major contributors. If you want you can check out the Japanese FreeBSD web site, although it is in Japanese.
This comment is funny, but it relies on a common misperception that the poor kids for whom the OLPC was created have no idea what modern urban life is like. Most of them live in or in the shadow of large modern cities, Johannisberg, Kolkata, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Manila, and Mexico City, just to name a few. They have plenty of opportunities to see modern life, they just don't have much opportunity to participate.
Let me help you out with a simple analogy. You read slashdot, right? So, you have plenty of opportunities to see beautiful women, but all you get to do is watch, from a distance. That's why you bought that stick of Axe Deoderant.
I love tcl/tk. It is amazing how quickly development goes. But, won't the game be slow? Well, maybe the author added some c library stuff to do the grunge work and uses tcl/tk as a framework. Also it depends on how fast the games generates new states. I think it might be the case that for a child learning about simulations and programming, slowing the "machine" down will enable them to watch all the gears meshing. The quest for speed might be counter productive here.
I think it would be really cool if the game gets extended to incorporate collaboration such that seveal kids can link their environments together to simulate border issues. Am I dreaming that this might someday result in better international relations? How about if we donate a few of these games to the US State Department, would that help?
I had no problem with my teenage sons taking off their clothes. It was picking them up and putting them in the hamper, there was the problem. Nothing like have a middle-aged middle-of-the-night need to pee and tripping over rancid smelling boxer shorts left on the bathroom floor.
Apple did that. The Newton. I still use mine, every day, for writing, shopping lists, sending mail, address book and appointments. It can even be made to work as a web browser, although that is pushing it. There has never been anything like it. Not even close.
When I was a kid I envisioned something similar except the cars would fly. I wasn't alone. What happened? Well, I also envisioned hooking up with a babe like Annette Funacello, and that didn't happen either...
This is/. What does anyone here know about baseball? Especially a guy who posts about quantum feedback theory. The issue was the/. effect occurring in the absence of/., which is not a theory at all, despite the collapse.
Microsoft wants all FOSS to be developed for Windows. And Office. As long as it does not compete with their products. Next comes the extend piece, in which they fiddle with someone's creative effort just enough to come up with something they can protect, like how they did with kerberos and ldap. Free development for their profit.
And earlier today we had
Virgin Digital closing shop.
Way too much sexual innuendo for this crowd! Somebody bring a bucket of cold water, and pour in a cupfull of saltpeter.
Slashdot Mirror
Your scepticism is well founded. I have been running a more expansive project, called Open Slate, for over five years, and have never gotten much interest. My project has a textbook piece called Chalk Dust. From its inception I did not think it would look or act quite like Wikipedia, but to help jump start the program I set up a wikimedia site. Nothing happening there. Last year I gave up on the public school system and turned to homeschoolers. Nothing there yet, either, in spite of my offer to teach a class for free. The big problem appears to be the hope, on the part of subject matter experts, that they will make money writing textbooks.
What about pheromones on plastic? Recently my cat relieved herself on my Apple eMate. (Bracing for deluge of wit.) So far it remains dead, and replacements aren't expensive, so this may be moot. But, if it does come back to life, what are some electronics compatible ways to get rid of that smell?
Although I consider myself liberal, sex with ducks is fowl play.
(Ducking behind a cow painted to look like a woman in a blue silk dress.)
How about making the Wii so that the only power source is the Fit pad? Before you could play other games you would have to charge up a big storage capacitor. This ought to make a significant improvement on the world-wide increase in child obesity.
Oh yeah, there is the OLPC's hand crank and foot pedal power. If it's good for poor kids then its good for rich kids, and they actually need more exercise.
OK? Is it possible to post comments on /. and still be OK? I'm not so sure ... I guess maybe it depends on the limit set by "pretty much." See, I think of /. in a Slaughterhouse-Five sort of way; if you are here you cannot be normal. And I am here.
I agree with your view; this story is fud. The concerns about abuse of security may be well intentioned but nevertheless reek of paranoia. Third world == evil dictators == child abuse. These people need to get out and travel more. As for the technical issues of key escrow, is there a better solution given the context? I can't think of one, not unless you impose a pre-requisit that all users must be highly literate and live amongst well educated adults. The way it is may not be perfect, but you have to start somewhere.
Oh. You said banana peel in your subject line, which makes my reply rather lame. Like I stepped on it.
banana peel
Anyone interested in contributing to open-source textbooks should visit the Open Slate Project. The textbook piece has a wiki up and is looking for submissions. The reason why open-source textbooks have not been a success is the difficulty in accessing them. The Open Slate Project intends to solve the problem of bringing IT into the classroom, not as a subject for study so much as a tool for learning through communication.
What a fowl mind you have!
A couple of things. First, I invite anyone who has become disenchanted with OLPC to join us at the Open Slate Project. Our view of the computer, software, and textbooks is slightly different than what Bruce described, especially in that Chalk Dust, the courseware portion, is not intended to be implemented with E-books.
To be honest, Open Slate is not as far along as OLPC, but we have been making progress. Our audience is not poor, third-world kids as much as everyday kids in brick-and-mortar schools as well as homeschoolers.
The resistance I have encountered with regards to Chalk Dust replacing commercial textbooks has so far come from potential authors. A successful book is a welcome supplement to a university professor's pay. To a lesser extent, so are payments for reviews of journal submissions. But I believe our greatest challenge to overcome is apathy ... professors admit they select books for class without knowing what the cost. It is to our advantage that the high cost of textbooks recently became headline news.
All too often those who claim proficiency in pedagogy are merely hiding their lack of brilliance behind a stack of journal articles and study results. I draw inspiration from Shin'ichi Suzuki, founder of Talent Education, who with no formal training in education single-handedly created one of the most successfull methods of teaching music to children. Back in the 70s Suzuki was widely criticized by American violin pedagogues who denounced him as a crackpot. The Suzuki method was built on a common sense view of learning which begins with this observation: children naturally learn their mother tongue without the help of experts. Therefore, children know how to learn, and mothers are the best teachers.
Now apply that view to homeschooling and an interesting picture develops. Parents are fully qualified to teach young children. As children get older they benefit from subject matter experts, but it does not require a brick-and-morter school to provide them. K-12 teachers complain about the lack of parent involvement, especially as the children get older. With homeschoolers, the parent is always involved.
Hold on, there! Who says education has a core of three R's? Or a core of anything? This is just pedagogical pablum passed along year after year as if it were inscribed in stone by the almighty himself. Stringing together Python scripts could very well be much more relavent to today's children.
Two things:
1. You did not mention CPU speed throttling. With newer, faster CPUs this is vital to long battery life. I run FreeBSD 7.0 on a Dell Latitude D830, with dual core CPU. The OS sees and uses both CPUs automatically, but CPU speed control is, so far, strictly manual. Gnome has a panel thingy called "CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor" that I can use to set the speed as low was 800MHz with little apparent affect. What I want is for this to be automatic, with the CPU barely ticking over when there is nothing to do.
2. The success of ACPI is dependent on the BIOS. In turn, BIOS suppliers tend to make ACPI code which works with Windows without consideration for the standard, and Microsoft does not follow the standard. ACPI as implemented on Linux and the BSDs begins at strict conformance. The fiddle mentioned in another post is the process of getting a broken BIOS working with a "correct" ACPI implementation. Since every manufacturer comes up with their own version, there is some variety in what is broken.
Speaking of broken, on my D830 sleep mode works fine in Windows XP, but in FreeBSD it never wakes up. If I were to fiddle enough I might get it working, but I have other things to do.
More at FreeBSD Handbook ACPI Overview.
I spent Sunday afternoon wrestling with my neighbor's XP box to get it functioning after a mass of malware infections. I got rid of everything except the above mentioned Zango / Fastclick stuff. Every time IE opens, two more windows open on ads that rotate automatically. AdAware did not find these. I told him to keep updating AdAware daily and scanning, thinking they might find a way to get rid of it.
Anybody have a removal process? Again, it's Windows XP and IE (was 6, I just upgraded him to 7).
AdTHANKSvance!
What is it a "2girls1cup?" One cup? As in a bra cup? A mono bra? This is gross? A metaphor, then? "My cup runeth over." We all know what "runeth over" means. I've never needed two girls to run mine over, or run over mine, but I can imagine. Not so gross. I think maybe you do not understand what is gross. Because what is gross to you is not gross to everyone else, and you are not in charge.
Police? Yes, I'd like to report a stolen camera.
The parking lot at seven eleven.
To buy a slushie.
The roof of my car.
It cost over forty grand.
A Volkswagon Beatle.
No no, the camera.
That's right, a slushie.
No, just a slushie.
I don't think they sell that.
Yes, the roof.
Really big. And it takes round pictures.
No, really, I haven't.
No, this isn't.
Balls? Only two.
Yes they are, but that's not what I meant by round pictures.
Well, I guess it is.
I'm sure it wouldn't fit.
Same to you.
This comment is funny, but it relies on a common misperception that the poor kids for whom the OLPC was created have no idea what modern urban life is like. Most of them live in or in the shadow of large modern cities, Johannisberg, Kolkata, Rio de Janeiro, Jakarta, Manila, and Mexico City, just to name a few. They have plenty of opportunities to see modern life, they just don't have much opportunity to participate.
Let me help you out with a simple analogy. You read slashdot, right? So, you have plenty of opportunities to see beautiful women, but all you get to do is watch, from a distance. That's why you bought that stick of Axe Deoderant.
Now do you understand?
I love tcl/tk. It is amazing how quickly development goes. But, won't the game be slow? Well, maybe the author added some c library stuff to do the grunge work and uses tcl/tk as a framework. Also it depends on how fast the games generates new states. I think it might be the case that for a child learning about simulations and programming, slowing the "machine" down will enable them to watch all the gears meshing. The quest for speed might be counter productive here.
I think it would be really cool if the game gets extended to incorporate collaboration such that seveal kids can link their environments together to simulate border issues. Am I dreaming that this might someday result in better international relations? How about if we donate a few of these games to the US State Department, would that help?
Check out Squeak, based on Smalltalk. http://www.squeak.org/
I had no problem with my teenage sons taking off their clothes. It was picking them up and putting them in the hamper, there was the problem. Nothing like have a middle-aged middle-of-the-night need to pee and tripping over rancid smelling boxer shorts left on the bathroom floor.
see Newton Newbie Guide.
When I was a kid I envisioned something similar except the cars would fly. I wasn't alone. What happened? Well, I also envisioned hooking up with a babe like Annette Funacello, and that didn't happen either ...
This is /. What does anyone here know about baseball? Especially a guy who posts about quantum feedback theory. The issue was the /. effect occurring in the absence of /., which is not a theory at all, despite the collapse.
Microsoft wants all FOSS to be developed for Windows. And Office. As long as it does not compete with their products. Next comes the extend piece, in which they fiddle with someone's creative effort just enough to come up with something they can protect, like how they did with kerberos and ldap. Free development for their profit.
And earlier today we had Virgin Digital closing shop. Way too much sexual innuendo for this crowd! Somebody bring a bucket of cold water, and pour in a cupfull of saltpeter.