First off, this is in general directed at those who want to buy an OLPC, and not those who in general want a slower laptop with better battery life.
As someone who actually had a chance to sit down and play with an OLPC, I'd like to make a few comments.
First, unless you also want to tote around a USB hard drive, you're limited to a 1GB NAND flash drive and an SD slot for all your storage. The revolutionary battery life estimates assume there's no mechanical hard drive to suck up power.
Second, the keyboard, while very high quality for the price (it's a nice ruggedized rubber), is made for a child's hands. I don't consider myself to be one with sausage fingers, but it was hard as hell to type on.
Third, it's got this weird user interface based on the X Window system. Now, it might be quite intuitive to someone who has never used a computer before, for someone like me, with Windows, Mac, and Unix experience, I still had some trouble finding my way around. From what the guy who had it mentioned, it wasn't an easy task to switch out their default install with Damn Small Linux or something similar.
Basically the OLPC is designed to let students write papers, view electronic textbooks, browse the web, and create wireless mesh networks to interact with each other in absence of internet connectivity. It's very, VERY basic for even an African schoolchild's needs. It is not suitable at all for day to day use, at least until large flash storage is much cheaper.
While I respect the fact so many of you want a machine that meets your needs, and nothing more, I feel your $100.00 would be better spent buying an older thinkpad machine and beefing up the RAM. (Though I hope you'll consider donating to the OLPC foundation... it's tax dedecutable!)
Here's the problem: Most people use Firefox for it's extensions, spellchecking, and other useful features.
Most people also hate that Firefox uses large amounts of memory due to it's extensions, spellchecking, and other useful features.
There is a "Firefox Lite", at least for OSX. It's called Camino. I briefly used it myself, and while I do agree it was fast, the lack of extensions was a dealbreaker.
Now yes, we could make a Firefox Lite, but why? Mozilla =/= Microsoft. They simply want people to be able to use a quality web browser. If that browser happens to be Opera (as one parent pointed out), we should put aside personal biases and point users with slower PCs towards Opera.
On another note, those experiencing problems with Firefox, and who are using OSX, try this. Apparently they put in some architecture specific code to speed up the browser, and it's still compatible with firefox extensions.
See it's so much easier with windows, I only have to chose between:
Windows Vista Starter Edition Windows Vista Home Basic Edition Windows Vista Home Premium Edition Windows Vista Business Edition Windows Vista Enterprise Edition Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Each of these has a very clear purpose, with a name that makes absolutely clear what features the user will be getting. It's so such simpler than choosing between Ubuntu or Debian or Redhat or Suse or all the other output of Linus Torvalds' socialistic 5 year plan.
Yes let's cure all the little ones. They don't fit the social norms, their maladaptive behaviors must be expunged!
And when we cure all the Autistics, we'll move on from there. What about those damn punks and their screechy music? Give them some pills! And how about those communists, they don't seem to be fitting in too well. Better cure them too. And the gays, they live such unhappy lives. Why not cure them? Living in a predominantly Christian nation while practicing another religion is pretty strange, I think we should cure that too. And what about those left handed people? They're so WEIRD...
You see where I'm going? Go ahead, cure Autism. And cry when eighteen years leader there's a massive lack of students interested in the hard sciences, math, or computer science. Watch as the "Web 2.0" world you've created crumbles around your ears. And watch as the slope steadily slippens, until America resembles a German propaganda film.
Here's something to think of.
I'd just like to throw this out here, since so many of my fellow geeks are throwing away their money on pricey energy drinks. Energy drinks are the monster cables of the beverage industry.
Soda =/= Booze. You can drink a lot of it before you die. (About 10 two liter bottles, assuming a LD50 of 6mg, the fatal dose jumps between 3mg and 20mg depending on weight and tolerance)
If you do the math, it's cheaper to buy a 2 liter of say, Vault Zero, which when you take into account that there are ~33 fluid ounces in a liter, and a twelve ounce serving of vault contains 74mg of caffeine.
66 ounces / 12 ounces = 5.5
5.5 * 74mg = 407mg
So for about $1.99 you can get 407mg of tasty, calorie free caffeine goodness. Or for the same price, you can get a Red Bull with 80mg of caffeine. And let's face it: Red Bull is like malt liquor. No one drinks it for the taste.
Has anyone who wasn't seeding massive amounts of people on bittorrent ever been sued? All the cases I hear about seem to involve P2P services like limewire, which seem to me at least to be what only a small percentage of people use to get music and movies, most people use torrent sites like the Pirate Bay.
Performance penalty depends mainly on if you make regular backups. Filevault works by creating an encrypted image of your home folder. When you shut down, the image is updated and all unencrypted files deleted.
Instead my mac decided to just keep making filevault images and not deleting them. I found out something was up when I tried to download a pdf and was told my hard drive was out of space.
I tried numerous solutions I found on Usenet, but eventually just reformatted and reinstalled all my files from backups.
Now use disk utility to make a small encrypted disk image where I keep sensitive documents and files. It's small enough to burn to a DVD-R the way I set it up, but you can pick any size, and it uses 128 bit AES.
Actually most people who fought the RIAA found their cases dropped...
The RIAA doesn't want to risk some judge setting a precedent in the defentant's favor. For example, if someone claims they had a wide open AP and that the RIAA could not prove it was them who actually downloaded that file.
Overnight everyone would run out and buy cheap linksys routers and the RIAA's game falls apart.
I think they planned the name change for a while, the address for the personal homepage is http://google.com/ig, and has been from the start.
I'm guessing they had the lawyers look at it.
I've seen some badideas that actually got through legislature and implemented, so I wouldn't hold your breath.
Write to your legislators, and make your opinion known. Contact your congressman and make it known he will lose your vote if he supports this legislation.
"I've even been recommended, on more than one occasion, to look at someone's chest rather than their face."
I'm sure no Americans ever take advantage of this cultural difference? Right?
I wish they'd fix this really odd error I've had since I upgraded to 2.0: I can't download files. For example, right clicking on a picture and trying to save it simple does not work. I can copy it, bring it into photoshop, and save it that way. I can open the link in Safari, and save it that way. I have no clue what's causing it, disabling extensions one by one doesn't fix it, reinstalling firefox doesn't fix it, and it doesn't happen on my linux box or when I run windows in Boot Camp.
The suburbs.
I've had the unique chance to go to a very dangerous school and a very rich upper middle class school.
For some reason they were jumpier in suburban Upper St. Clair than in the ghettos of Pittsburgh.
I've seen personal info blurred so poorly simple adjustment with the levels tool in photoshop made them visible.
The information in question was a credit card number. The guy was lucky, he had an AIM screenname in his profile. I contacted him and he replaced the image.
Slashdot Mirror
First off, this is in general directed at those who want to buy an OLPC, and not those who in general want a slower laptop with better battery life.
As someone who actually had a chance to sit down and play with an OLPC, I'd like to make a few comments.
First, unless you also want to tote around a USB hard drive, you're limited to a 1GB NAND flash drive and an SD slot for all your storage. The revolutionary battery life estimates assume there's no mechanical hard drive to suck up power.
Second, the keyboard, while very high quality for the price (it's a nice ruggedized rubber), is made for a child's hands. I don't consider myself to be one with sausage fingers, but it was hard as hell to type on.
Third, it's got this weird user interface based on the X Window system. Now, it might be quite intuitive to someone who has never used a computer before, for someone like me, with Windows, Mac, and Unix experience, I still had some trouble finding my way around. From what the guy who had it mentioned, it wasn't an easy task to switch out their default install with Damn Small Linux or something similar.
Basically the OLPC is designed to let students write papers, view electronic textbooks, browse the web, and create wireless mesh networks to interact with each other in absence of internet connectivity. It's very, VERY basic for even an African schoolchild's needs. It is not suitable at all for day to day use, at least until large flash storage is much cheaper.
While I respect the fact so many of you want a machine that meets your needs, and nothing more, I feel your $100.00 would be better spent buying an older thinkpad machine and beefing up the RAM. (Though I hope you'll consider donating to the OLPC foundation... it's tax dedecutable!)
Ironically, slashdot has stolen an article from digg, instead of the other way around.
Most people also hate that Firefox uses large amounts of memory due to it's extensions, spellchecking, and other useful features.
There is a "Firefox Lite", at least for OSX. It's called Camino. I briefly used it myself, and while I do agree it was fast, the lack of extensions was a dealbreaker.
Now yes, we could make a Firefox Lite, but why? Mozilla =/= Microsoft. They simply want people to be able to use a quality web browser. If that browser happens to be Opera (as one parent pointed out), we should put aside personal biases and point users with slower PCs towards Opera.
On another note, those experiencing problems with Firefox, and who are using OSX, try this. Apparently they put in some architecture specific code to speed up the browser, and it's still compatible with firefox extensions.
See it's so much easier with windows, I only have to chose between:
Windows Vista Starter Edition
Windows Vista Home Basic Edition
Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
Windows Vista Business Edition
Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Each of these has a very clear purpose, with a name that makes absolutely clear what features the user will be getting. It's so such simpler than choosing between Ubuntu or Debian or Redhat or Suse or all the other output of Linus Torvalds' socialistic 5 year plan.
Oh wait...
You think that's bad? Some poor souls have been using this "Gnu C Compiler". Entire programs infected with the virus! WON'T SOMEONE STOP THE MADNESS?!
Yes let's cure all the little ones. They don't fit the social norms, their maladaptive behaviors must be expunged! And when we cure all the Autistics, we'll move on from there. What about those damn punks and their screechy music? Give them some pills! And how about those communists, they don't seem to be fitting in too well. Better cure them too. And the gays, they live such unhappy lives. Why not cure them? Living in a predominantly Christian nation while practicing another religion is pretty strange, I think we should cure that too. And what about those left handed people? They're so WEIRD... You see where I'm going? Go ahead, cure Autism. And cry when eighteen years leader there's a massive lack of students interested in the hard sciences, math, or computer science. Watch as the "Web 2.0" world you've created crumbles around your ears. And watch as the slope steadily slippens, until America resembles a German propaganda film.
As someone with a disorder on the Autistic Spectrum, I'll go one step further and say that it's hilarious.
I disagree! *drives away*
Here's something to think of. I'd just like to throw this out here, since so many of my fellow geeks are throwing away their money on pricey energy drinks. Energy drinks are the monster cables of the beverage industry. Soda =/= Booze. You can drink a lot of it before you die. (About 10 two liter bottles, assuming a LD50 of 6mg, the fatal dose jumps between 3mg and 20mg depending on weight and tolerance) If you do the math, it's cheaper to buy a 2 liter of say, Vault Zero, which when you take into account that there are ~33 fluid ounces in a liter, and a twelve ounce serving of vault contains 74mg of caffeine. 66 ounces / 12 ounces = 5.5 5.5 * 74mg = 407mg So for about $1.99 you can get 407mg of tasty, calorie free caffeine goodness. Or for the same price, you can get a Red Bull with 80mg of caffeine. And let's face it: Red Bull is like malt liquor. No one drinks it for the taste.
Has anyone who wasn't seeding massive amounts of people on bittorrent ever been sued? All the cases I hear about seem to involve P2P services like limewire, which seem to me at least to be what only a small percentage of people use to get music and movies, most people use torrent sites like the Pirate Bay.
Performance penalty depends mainly on if you make regular backups. Filevault works by creating an encrypted image of your home folder. When you shut down, the image is updated and all unencrypted files deleted.
Instead my mac decided to just keep making filevault images and not deleting them. I found out something was up when I tried to download a pdf and was told my hard drive was out of space.
I tried numerous solutions I found on Usenet, but eventually just reformatted and reinstalled all my files from backups.
Now use disk utility to make a small encrypted disk image where I keep sensitive documents and files. It's small enough to burn to a DVD-R the way I set it up, but you can pick any size, and it uses 128 bit AES.
Actually most people who fought the RIAA found their cases dropped... The RIAA doesn't want to risk some judge setting a precedent in the defentant's favor. For example, if someone claims they had a wide open AP and that the RIAA could not prove it was them who actually downloaded that file. Overnight everyone would run out and buy cheap linksys routers and the RIAA's game falls apart.
Yoogle
Each site caches and indexes themselves? I'm sure no one will find a way to game that system.
I think they planned the name change for a while, the address for the personal homepage is http://google.com/ig, and has been from the start. I'm guessing they had the lawyers look at it.
I've seen some bad ideas that actually got through legislature and implemented, so I wouldn't hold your breath. Write to your legislators, and make your opinion known. Contact your congressman and make it known he will lose your vote if he supports this legislation.
"I've even been recommended, on more than one occasion, to look at someone's chest rather than their face." I'm sure no Americans ever take advantage of this cultural difference? Right?
I wish they'd fix this really odd error I've had since I upgraded to 2.0: I can't download files. For example, right clicking on a picture and trying to save it simple does not work. I can copy it, bring it into photoshop, and save it that way. I can open the link in Safari, and save it that way. I have no clue what's causing it, disabling extensions one by one doesn't fix it, reinstalling firefox doesn't fix it, and it doesn't happen on my linux box or when I run windows in Boot Camp.
They only have the PPC version in their download, is there a Universal Binary or intel binary floating around somwhere?
The suburbs. I've had the unique chance to go to a very dangerous school and a very rich upper middle class school. For some reason they were jumpier in suburban Upper St. Clair than in the ghettos of Pittsburgh.
I've seen personal info blurred so poorly simple adjustment with the levels tool in photoshop made them visible. The information in question was a credit card number. The guy was lucky, he had an AIM screenname in his profile. I contacted him and he replaced the image.
People who use vi have names like Lenny and people who use Emacs have names like Carl.
I don't have any misconceptions - I just believe what is moral is not always legal. (and vice versa in some cases)
I think I'll stick with the easy way... Knoppix STD and a very authentic looking janitor's uniform.
Ladder theory.