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Reunión de PyAr en Rosario

humitos — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:57:05 +0000

Hace unos 15 minutos me bajé del colectivo que venía de Rosario. Fui para allá porque se hizo la reunión número 31 de Python Argentina, en dónde nos conocimos las caras con algunos Rosarios y con otros pude matchear el nick con la cara, ya que los conocía personalmente, y conocía su nick pero no sabía que eran la misma persona. Esas cosas locas que tiene la internet.

La reunión se organizó por la lista, como siempre, siguiendo el Release Procedure de la página de PyAr y esta tubo lugar el Sábado a las 14 hs. Si, pasando el medio día... Un horario medio extraño debido a que era complicado coordinar los horarios de todos los miembros de PyAr que asistieron. Igualmente se tomó cerveza como si hubiese sido de noche :)

Particularmente yo, salí de Santa Fe el Viernes 5 a las 22 horas, y llegué cerca de la 1 a la casa de Pachy (un amigo de Rosario) en dónde también se encontraba mi primo Gustavo. Tomamos unas cervezas ahí, les mostré la OLPC y les comenté un poquito como era el proyecto y la misión de la gente que impulsaba esto. Jugamos un rato, y como siempre se criticaron algunas cosas con respecto al hardware. Lamentablemente la versión de la OLPC que tengo no es una de las mejores y tiene muchas fallas todavía: a veces se tilda el teclado, la batería no funciona, al girar la pantalla pasan cosas medias extrañas y demás. Aunque el peor de los problemas que tiene es que demora mucho en iniciar, entonces la gente empieza a alterarse, por decirlo de alguna manera, con toda razón. Es muy lento! :)

De ahí (la casa de Pachy) nos fuimos a tomar unas cervezas a un bar y terminamos volviendo cerca de las 7 de la mañana, porque el estómago decía "Basta!", aunque algunos siguieron de carabana un rato más. Antes de salir par el bar tuve que dejar el bolsito de Python ;) que había llevado en la casa de Pachy, no iba pasear la OLPC por todo Rosario...

Esto de dejar el bolso, al otro día significo que no pueda llevar la OLPC a la reunión, y como yo había prometido que la llevaba me hizo sentir un poco mal. El problema fue que cuando la fui a buscar cerca del medio día al lugar dónde la había dejado, no encontré nadie en la casa y no atendían el teléfono :(

Con Gustavo llegamos a eso de las 15:30 hs a la reunión, ya estaban todos ubicados y habían lanzado con la ¿primer? vuelta de cervezas. Nos acomodamos, nos presentamos y seguimos el hilo de la reunión. Se charló de los proyectos personales de cada uno: X-IP por ejemplo tenía una idea muy loca, que era hacer un programa web que cumpla la misma función que Nautilus o algún otro explorador de archivos. Que se puedan arrastrar las carpetas para mover y demás. También hablamos de cómo cada uno conoció Python, las 3ras Jornadas de Python en Santa Fe, Pyweek, organización del grupo de PyAr Rosario, X-IP hizo un sitio web en 15 minutos con plone sobre PyAr Rosario (¡Groso!) y para finalizar intentamos instalar un modem huawei de CTI para internet inalámbrica en cualquier lado dónde llegue la señal de CTI :P que el mismo estaba hecho en Python...

También nos pasamos los contactos de todos, anotamos nuestros nombres en una hoja con nuestros mail y teléfonos, para coordinar futuras reuniones. Se acordó de juntarse cada 60 días aproximadamente y se pusieron algunas pilas sobre la mesa con respecto a participar en PyWeek el año que viene (¿cuantos grupos van ya Argentinos?). Hablamos de la escacés de libros de Python en castellano que se encuentran en las librerías, sobre la traducción del libro de Django como así también la del tutorial de Python, cómo aprender Python, recomendación de libros y quizás algunas cosas más que en este momento no recuerdo.

La gente que conocí me cayó muy bien, muy buena onda y al parecer con ganas de hacer cosas, que eso es muy importante. Lamentablemente llegué tarde debido a la odisea que intenté hacer para rescatar la OLPC y poder llevarla. Me perdí la presentación de algunos y los primeros temas que tocaron. Muchas gracias a Ernesto que me dió una mano (bah, en realidad fueron muchas más que una) con el costo de los pasajes hacia Rosaio. Cerca de las 18 hs la reunión terminó y cada uno para su casa.

Esa misma noche me junté con unos amigos a comer una pastas con salsa de hongos que estaba espectacular. A la mitad de la noche tiré el tema de PyWeek que había ganado: "The lenght of the piece of string" y deliramos bastante sobre la idea del juego luego de unos buenos fernetes...

El domingo organicé todas las cosas, y por la tarde fuimos a pasear al parque con mi primo y unos amigos. Tomamos unos mates, miramos chicas, y luego me fui para la terminal. Ese fue todo el viaje en pocas palabras.

One Laptop signs up with Amazon

thepcspecialist — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 19:11:18 +0000

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has signed a deal with Amazon to sell its low cost laptops.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="173" caption="One laptop per child: Green laptop"][/caption]

The online retailer will help with its next Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) programme that is due to begin in late November. Under this scheme people can buy one of the XO laptops for themselves and donate the other to a school child in a developing nation. It is hoped the deal with Amazon will iron out the problems OLPC encountered when it ran the G1G1 programme itself. Novel model Dreamed up by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC was set up to create and build a powerful laptop for school children in developing nations that sold in the millions and cost less than $100 (£56). The resulting XO laptop sports distinctive green and white livery, has wi-fi built in, can be powered by a pull cord, and comes loaded with educational software. Many nations have expressed an interest in using the XO but relatively few started big projects that gave the machine to students and school children. In a bid to boost the take-up of the XO laptop, the OLPC started the G1G1 programme in November 2007 that let US residents buy two of the machines for $398. While many people expressed interest in participating the OLPC group hit problems in getting XO machines to customers. Production delays and delivery glitches led to many people cancelling orders while OLPC sorted out the problems. The new round of the G1G1 programme is due to start in late November and run until the end of 2008. It will only be open to US residents. At the same time the OLPC group said it planned to launch the second generation of its laptop in 2010. The XO-2 does away with a keyboard in favour of two touch screens one of which can be converted to a touch type screen. OLPC hopes that the new version will also get closer to its long-stated ideal of producing a computer that costs less than $100. The current versions of the XO laptop cost about $200 but the new generation is expected to be available for about $80.

Source: BBC News

Nicholas Negroponte - One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Gons — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:17:10 +0000

Nicholas Negroponte es un científico de la computación estadounidense. De origen griego y nacido en 1943, es conocido por ser el fundador y director del Media Lab, un laboratorio y think tank de diseño y nuevos medios del Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT y en el cual es profesor desde 1966.

Es el impulsor del proyecto OLPC que pretende producir computadoras portátiles de bajo coste ( 100 dólares) para disminuir la brecha digital en los países menos desarrollados, proyecto que presentó en 2005 en el Foro económico mundial de Davos. De este modo, la fundación "Un ordenador para cada niño" (OLPC por sus siglas en inglés), iniciada por Negroponte y otros miembros de la facultad del Media Lab, pretende desarrollar el uso de la informática e Internet en países poco desarrollados.

Es hermano de John Negroponte y Laura Negroponte, miembros del Consejo de Inteligencia Nacional de Estados Unidos, y autor del libro Being digital (1995), traducido al español como Ser digital o Mundo digital, en el cual hace un paralelismo entre el mundo real compuesto de átomos y el mundo informático compuesto de bits.

En este proyecto también ha colaborado Yves Behar, un diseñador industrial y fundador del fuseproject nacido en la antigua Alemania del Este.

*Think Tank (“tanque de pensamiento” o “depósito de ideas”): es una institución investigadora u otro tipo de organización que ofrece consejos e ideas sobre asuntos de política, comercio e intereses militares. Algunos medios en español utilizan la expresión "fábrica de ideas" para referirse a los think tank. ¿Desea saber más?

Según informa la ‘BBC News’, Amazon ha anunciado un acuerdo con OLPC por el cual la tienda online venderá los ordenadores de bajo coste de la fundación dentro del programa 'Give 1 Get 1' (G1G1) que empezará en noviembre.

(Contenido basado en datos obtenidos de la Wikipedia)

OLPC

rivalslayer — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 06:24:52 +0000

"The OLPC Foundation's mission is to stimulate local grassroots initiatives designed to enhance and sustain over time the effectiveness of laptops as learning tools for children living in lesser-developed countries." - The OLPC website.

OLCP stands for One Laptop per Child.

This may not be a very interesting mission, lots of people will say, "Give them food, shelter and education, why Laptop?". Being a guy who saw the last Pentium leap in Electronics and Digital Communication and Media as a child, I do feel the impact of such a thing. The marvel of technology should be available for all the human beings living in this world. You can read this article "A OLPC story in Khairat".

You can also check the OLPC website, and what actually is the XO-1.

Just imagine; when a child turns his XO-1 on, and sees that his friends in the neighbourhood is playing a multiplayer game after dinner, he joins them. I am a casual gamer myself, and like to play online a lot, if I have fun, children would have more fun, wirelessly.

Being a half rural guy, I know the fun of being connected even in bed with friends. We do have chats in Shop, Clubs, Houses. But late at night, while you are about to leave study, your friend just rings you up, "What are you doing? Buddy!", the joy that you have while being connected to others is just great. I got my hands on a cell phone pretty late, thus I do have a passion for connectedness. And imagine a village in India, where children doesn't have cellphones, are getting connected while studing, and chatting from there homes. Awesome!

Windows Vista: Bring in the Gurus!

Harry McCracken — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 03:17:43 +0000

Remember when laptops were big, heavy, and cost two or three thousand dollars? Most of the action at the moment involves undersized cheapie models like the eee PC, HP Mini-Note...and Dell's new Inspiron.

Like a Genius Bar, Except Without the Black T-Shirts and the Bar Part
The quirky Gates-Seinfeld Vista ad that doesn't mention Vista may be today's biggest tech story, but it's only one front in an elaborate plan to reignite interest in Windows which Microsoft made public today. Another initiative involves sending "Microsoft Gurus" to retail stores such as Best Buy to answer consumers' questions about Windows PCs. It's an obvious knockoff of Apple's Genius Bars, but if it's done right, it's an excellent idea: One of the problems with most computer retailers other than Apple Stores is that staffers' levels of expertise is erratic to say the least. The Gurus aren't going to be able to replicate the Genius experience--Geniuses fix computers as well as provide general advice--but they stand a better chance of making life better for Windows users than Jerry Seinfeld ever could.

Read more at: All About Microsoft

Joost in the Browser
Joost, the video service launched last year by the creators of Skype and Kazaa, arrived with great fanfare. But compared to newer services like Hulu, it gets remarkably little attention these days. It's getting attention today, though: It's going to reportedly dump its client application in favor of a new approach that's entirely browser-based. That represents a major shift in strategy, but makes a lot of sense. You gotta think that most media services will go browser-only over time--maybe even including iTunes eventually.

Read more at: GigaOM

Attack of the Facebot
A team of researchers in Greece and Singapore built a "Photo of the Day" Facebook app that held a secret: It was designed to silently launch denial-of-service attacks behind the scenes. The researchers also speak of the possibility of Facebook apps to deposit malware on users' computers or steal personal data. None of which is really surprising--Facebook applications are, after all, applications...and when you let applications of any sort onto your PC you must accept the possibility of dangerous ones sneaking through.

Read more at: PC World

Google Chrome: Cool! Vulnerable!
Most reviews of Google's Chrome browser are at least guardedly positive. But browser fans aren't the only ones downloading it and taking it for a test drive--so are the hackers, good and bad, who find holes in software that bad guys can take advantage of. Google is taking note and working on fixes, and like many a software company before it, it's politely asking security experts to be careful about how they disclose vulnerabilities. The company presumably knew what it was getting into when it decided to go into the browser business--let's hope it staffed up with security experts of its own.

Read more at: Zero Day

One Laptop Per Amazon
Starting in November, Amazon.com will sell the One Laptop Per Child Foundation's XO "$100 laptops" under the "Give One Get One" program that lets buyers pay for one laptop for a deserving child in a developing nation, and one for themselves. That's a huge relief, since the idea is so worthy but the OLPC Foundation proved incapable of promptly and smoothly delivering the laptops to buyers last holiday season when it tried to do the program without a merchant partner. I finally got my XO months after I ordered it, but I'm tempted to try again this year, so that another kid who needs one gets it.

Read more at: Elecgtronista

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Vid-Biz: TiVo, Charity, Christian the Lion

Chris Albrecht — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:11:06 +0000

No Decision in TiVo Contempt Case; a federal judge failed to make a decision in TiVo's request to find Dish Network in contempt over not disabling its DVR functionality. (Multichannel News)

Online Video for a Good Cause; Dailymotion partners with One Laptop Per Child to create a site with videos in compatible formats for the device; Stand Up To Cancer organization guest edits the YouTube home page to raise awareness. (OLPC: Dailymotion Blog); Stand Up: YouTube Blog)

Christian the Lion Becoming a Movie; YouTube vid about a lion reuniting with its previous owners after spending a year in the wild optioned by Sony. (The Hollywood Reporter)

Comcast's Coutroom Drama Begins; cable co. is appealing FCC enforcement order over the throttling of BitTorrent traffic. (GigaOM)

Component Inputs Coming to Zv Box; new feature will allow additional set-top boxes like DVRs to be hooked up to the device. (CE Pro)

One Laptop signs up with Amazon

ebolg — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 15:38:40 +0000

One Laptop signs up with Amazon

The OLPC will call on Amazon's experience with delivery and despatch

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organisation has signed a deal with Amazon to sell its low cost laptops.

The online retailer will help with its next Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) programme that is due to begin in late November.

Under this scheme people can buy one of the XO laptops for themselves and donate the other to a school child in a developing nation.

It is hoped the deal with Amazon will iron out the problems OLPC encountered when it ran the G1G1 programme itself.

Novel model

Dreamed up by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte, the OLPC was set up to create and build a powerful laptop for school children in developing nations that sold in the millions and cost less than $100 (£56).

The resulting XO laptop sports distinctive green and white livery, has wi-fi built in, can be powered by a pull cord, and comes loaded with educational software.

Many nations have expressed an interest in using the XO but relatively few started big projects that gave the machine to students and school children.

In a bid to boost the take-up of the XO laptop, the OLPC started the G1G1 programme in November 2007 that let US residents buy two of the machines for $398.

While many people expressed interest in participating the OLPC group hit problems in getting XO machines to customers. Production delays and delivery glitches led to many people cancelling orders while OLPC sorted out the problems.

The new round of the G1G1 programme is due to start in late November and run until the end of 2008. It will only be open to US residents.

At the same time the OLPC group said it planned to launch the second generation of its laptop in 2010.

The XO-2 does away with a keyboard in favour of two touch screens one of which can be converted to a touch type screen.

OLPC hopes that the new version will also get closer to its long-stated ideal of producing a computer that costs less than $100.

The current versions of the XO laptop cost about $200 but the new generation is expected to be available for about $80.

Has the 1:1 Classroom Era Arrived?

Mark van 't Hooft — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 03:08:57 +0000

As I'm getting caught up on my reading (again), I ran across an email I got about 4 months ago from Dr. Tak-Wai Chan, through the g1to1 discussion listserv. Dr. Chan graciously let me reproduce his email here, which is really a nice overview of the last ten years in the area of mobile and 1:1 learning from Dr. Chan's point of view, especially with regards to what it means for learning and research in this area. What's interesting to me is the discussion with regards to the technology itself. Whereas Dr. Chan uses 1:1 and mobile interchangeably, in the U.S. at least it seems that a schism of sorts has been created between mobile and 1:1, as the latter term has come to mean "laptop program" in many schools and districts around the country.

Anyway, here is Dr. Chan's April 2008 letter to the g1to1 community (in italics, with my comments in regular text):

This is my story of 1:1 learning expedition that I'd like to share with you. Here I'd also like to advertise ICCE2008 this October in Taiwan since we plan to have these 1:1 learning issues be discussed at ICCE2008.

In 1998, I had a thought on using mobile technology in classrooms. Since price is a critical factor, we developed a very cheap response clicker system. I was not the first one to develop such clicker. But such clicker systems have become quite popular in some schools and even universities.

In 2000, I led a very large project. Our team promoted the concept of an 'electronic schoolbag' because one of the sub-projects was mobile learning and future classrooms in Taiwan. Of course, we didn't develop any hardware and argued that any portable device with wireless accessibility would do. At the same time, Pong-Fu Chu, a legendary Taiwanese from the computer industry announced that he was going to produce very cheap computers for students in the poor areas in mainland China. But his attempt, like the earlier Simputer

of India, was not a success. Singapore made a similar attempt in 1999, but their device called EduPAD was expensive.

[This was around the same time we started doing the PEP Project in the U.S., with Palm devices (at Kent State we worked with Palm IIIc's. Also, it's interesting to note here that almost a decade ago, mobile learning in Taiwan already considered wireless access a must, something that didn't happen in the U.S. until about 2004/2005, I'd say, and even today there is still much apprehension about giving students wireless access to the Internet and each other without having some stringent filtering in place.)

In 2004, Jeremy Roschelle and I organized WMTE2004, an IEEE mobile learning workshop, in Taiwan. One of the topics in our informal discussions was the ultimate device used by kids in the future. Elliot Soloway and Cathie Norris said that it should be PDA. But I was not completely convinced because, in Taiwan, administrators and possibly parents too, all think that a PDA screen is too small in general, not to mention using PDA for reading articles. But I have to admit that PDA screen sizes are actually not small compared to

many of the screens on GameBoy and similar game gadgets. After the WMTE workshop, I had a dinner with Ulrich Hoppe. I told him that I had asked my wife whether she would purchase a handy notebook such as an IBM ThinkPad X25 for our kids if a ThinkPad was cheap enough. She said no because it was too big and too heavy for the kids' school backpacks. I asked, "How about the TI's graphic calculators?" She said, "Definitely." (My two kids are now in high school and have TI calculators). So, I told Ulrich my guess of the

ultimate device for kids -- it should be half of the size a notebook computer (Ulrich said that I had a 'hidden' advisor on such devices).

[Again, interesting observations, especially with regards to screen size. Screen size has never really been an issue with students in our work, although it has been to some extent with adults. I think today it's not as much of an issue because many of the screens we deal with on a daily basis are small, especially when working with mobile tools. Another observation is that it's dangerous to put all of your eggs in one basket when it comes to the technology, especially mobile devices. Wireless mobile tools have and are developing at such a fast rate that obsolecence is the norm rather than the exception. Of course, the flip side of the coin is that if you don't invest your time, energy, and resources into something, you'll never move forward. In my view, mobile learning is mobile learning, no matter what type device you use. That's why I like the idea proposed by Sharples et al. of learning while mobile, the idea that it's the learner who is mobile, which is much closer to the idea of ubiquitous computing as described by e.g. Bell and Dourish (2006), and Rogers (2006).

In 2005, MIT announced their OLPC project. Later OLPC announced that Quanta, the largest notebook computer manufacturer from Taiwan, was going to (or dared to) manufacture their OLPC. Some people have claimed that these OLPCs were not powerful enough to be used by kids in developed countries. In 2006,

Intel announced their Classmate project. Last year in 2007, Asus, a Taiwanese company with a computer brand, announced Eee PC, a low-priced laptop.

[Plenty has been written about whether or not the OLPC project has succeeded. Regardless of the answer to that question, what the OLPC project did do was wake up industry to the fact that there is indeed a market for what I would call these mid-size devices, somewhere in between a palm-size devices and a laptop. Hence the development of devices such as the Eee PC, which seems to be gaining some traction in the U.S. market.]

Now, the size of these laptops-OLPC, Classmate, Eee PC-is not a problem, only a little larger than half the size of a standard notebook computer. Also, the weight is not a problem for kids, at around 1 KG. The price is not a problem, ranging from US$150 to US$500. The power is also not a problem too, since the software that would be used in schools should not be very demanding. Given time, they must be getting more and more powerful. But I was skeptical about the success of all these efforts, like my attitude towards Chu's effort.

You all know OLPC targets users in under-developed countries, and they have a peculiar running model. Classmate perhaps is still a pilot project, without mass production. Eee PCs are also not promising. Actually, Asus delivered an earlier version of low-priced computers called Ultra-Mobile PC before Eee PC. My team bought one. When I saw it, I decided to wait to see how the magic gadget died because it was heavy, not powerful enough, and ugly. When Eee PC came out, again my team bought one, and I didn't pay much

attention to it and was waiting to see when it will die. This is because their market cannot rely on schools kids, as schools are not for all practical purposes ready for such low-priced computers to come in yet. Without school kids, I don't know who will be their target customers.

A few weeks ago, Beijing had WMUTE2008. Before I went, Ulrich sent an email to me and suggested that we have OLPC and Classmate representatives give keynotes in ICCE2008. Also before WMUTE2008, my colleague, Gwo-Dong Chen, who is acquainted with the local computer industry, and I came up an idea of

organizing a G1:1 meeting. I said that given the attempts by Quanta and Asus, and given that there are so many computer industry companies in Taiwan, which can produce any computers you want (but may not know what to produce), local industry people may interest in joining a meeting right before or after ICCE2008 with international 1:1 researchers who could become their international consultants on classroom technology.

Then I went to Beijing. In a local G1:1 workshop right before WMUTE2008, I attended a presentation of a pilot project of Classmate in Beijing. I met Marcelo Milrad in WMUTE. He introduced me to Rogerio de Paula, who was Gerhard Fisher's PhD student now working as a researcher in the Classmate PC project at Intel.

To me, the signal that the 1:1 learning era (I'm referring to schools since college students are already 1:1; but 1:1 affects schools much more than colleges, I think.) has arrived was on the way back to Taiwan after

WMUTE2008. When I was on the plane to Hong Kong from Beijing, sitting next to me was a part time PhD student of my colleague. She took out her Eee PC and typed something. I said, "Did your advisor buy you the Eee PC?" She said, "No, I bought it for myself." She explained that she got an Eee PC asher second computer because it is so cheap and light, convenient to bring along on trips for receiving emails, for searching online information, for doing word processing, for preparing PPT presentations. I was stunned. Now, I see some uses of Eee PC-the second computer.

[This was really somewhat of an eye-opener for me, because even though I've been using a Palm OS-based device for a long time, it has always been somewhat of a hassle to transfer data from laptop/PC to handheld. Of course nowadays this should be much easier to do. Part of the issue here is also one of perception. In the U.S. the model has been desktop and laptop, not PC and mobile internet device.]

When I come back, I learnt three more things about Eee PC. First, to Asus, Eee PC is a market success. They are going to release the second version of Eee PC. Other computer companies like Acer, Dell, and HP are going to release their low-priced notebooks (Acer had laughed at Asus's Eee PCbefore; just like Intel at MIT's OLPC). Second, my colleagues in my institute told me that another target user group for Eee PC is old people.

They do not demand many applications, only a few-such as Web surfing, email, and word processing. Although they are still not powerful enough for 3D games, more and more games for kids will be moved to them when their power increases. Third, Microsoft planned to release their new version of Vista sooner, but due to the success of the low-priced (and low-power) notebooks, they delayed their release to address support for such computers (otherwise Linux will take advantage of this).

[Again, interesting observations. Of course, running Vista on something like an Eee PC is like swatting a fly with a sledgehammer to say the least, and if I'm going to buy an Eee PC or similar device it would definitely NOT run on anything that's a full-blown version of Windows.]

A few days ago, I met my colleague Gwo-Dong again. He told me that members of the local industry do not seem to be interested in the idea we had. They have their agents in different countries; they will rely on them rather on academia. The same is true for PC industry people who would not directly to contact their school customers for setting up PC labs in the past, but their agents. However, if international 1:1 researchers are able to increase their avenues, these industry people will then be interested to interact with us. What does this mean? For example, if Ulrich or Marcelo can persuade their governments in Germany or Sweden to purchase tens of thousands computers with whatever brand names for the computers, say UlrichPad J or MarceloPad J, then these companies will be very interested to talk to Ulrich or Marcelo.

[This has always been the case for education, and I think it's why, for example, Palm substantially downsized its investment in K-12 education. I don't think we'll see the day, at least not in my lifetime, that we see a U.S. government initiative along the lines described here or following the model that OLPC envisioned.]

We should applaud OLPC's effort. They've not only succeeded in raising the global awareness of digital divide problem and the concern of the globalization of education. Without their bold adventure, there will be no bold attempts, at least not so fast, by Quanta, Intel, and Asus, and hence the followers - Acer, HP, and Dell. (Note: Most computers nowadays are manufactured by Taiwanese companies. Actually, the companies are located in Taiwan, and the computers are possibly designed in Taiwan too, but the production lines are in China.) Without low-priced computers, most people are still bound to our bulky and expensive Windows notebook computers. I've used notebook computers for many years, but the price has been always in the

same level. Despite significant improvements in computer power and performance of my computer, I only use very few applications: Word, PPT, email, and a Web browser.

[This rings very true to me, and I think is an omen of what is to come for laptop programs in the U.S.; they're simply to expensive in time and money to maintain.]

What does it mean to say the 1:1 learning era? To me, the era of a new learning paradigm that is related to a particular technology begins when the 'maturity' of that technology has reached a certain stage. What I mean here by maturity to a certain stage is: wide accessibility to that technology and a large user population that does not include only users for educational purposes. We are now in the network learning era. When did it begin? I'd say it was in the mid-nineties because at that time it was clear that the users of Internet were more than just academics (of course, almost everyone can access Internet now). Learning, though important, is just one of the many applications of the Internet. Our schools are now in the PC Lab era. When did it begin? It was in the late eighties or early nineties when PCs became widely accessible for more than

educational purposes. The same is true for low-priced computers. Computers dedicated to education do not easily survive in the marketplace simply because schools are not ready. But the survival of low-priced general purpose computers in the market (the global market projection for low-priced computers is 10 million computers; thus at least some companies can survive) implies affordability and widespread usage by students and educators, potentially extending the low-priced computer market.

[I agree with Dr. Chan's description of a new learning paradigm. We are definitely in a network learning era, driven by the many tools provided by way of the Internet. However, while I agree to some extent that many schools are still in a PC Lab era, the key is that we need to look beyond the school walls and school day. When it comes to learning, we're definitely heading into a 1:1/learning while mobile era, or whatever term you want to put on it. What we need to realize is that a model of educational technology in which the tools are provided by a central institution like a school district, is not going to hold over the long term. A model that seems much more viable to me is one in which the learner provides the hardware to access learning tools and content, whether it be a mobile phone, pda, netbook, mobile internet device, gaming console, laptop, pc, etc. In this model, it will be up to the school to provide (access to) the network. This is a very different type of implementation model that will require some major changes on the part of educational institutions, in terms of technology, curriculum, and pedagogy.

Why is 1:1 learning important to our research? You can say that all I said above was about computer or technology trends, merely practical things happening in the real world. What is the significance of these trends relating to our research? Certainly, 1:1 technology is only a platform and an environment. However, if we remember our past research, our technology enhanced pedagogy research, fortunately or unfortunately, was very much influenced by technology advancement. When we were using workstations and PCs in the 70's and 80's, many of them were standalone then, AI researchers were investigating one-to-one tutoring, with a computer tutoring a student. When there was an Internet upsurge in the 90's, CSCL research, especially network learning community research, flourished. In this decade, mobile phones are widely used, and we now talk about mobile learning; since PCs are now more powerful than before, we talk about video-game based learning; since network performance is now better than before, we talk about MMOGs for learning (note that game-based learning must incorporate individual learning, including intelligent tutoring as well as group learning, including collaborative learning). Different from other learning paradigms, 1:1 learning can directly affect the teaching practice of the classrooms, and hence schools. The 1:1 technology only provides a platform, but on it we can conduct intelligent tutoring, collaborative learning, and game-based learning, both inside and outside classrooms. In other words, 1:1 technology will change the classroom, the setting where formal education most often takes place.

[And as I stated above, it will change learning beyond the classroom as well, and I think a concept like learning while mobile will work well here, because it is less reliable on certain technologies and more on learner characteristics. In fact, the only way we will be successful with using technology for teaching and learning is gaining a deeper understanding of how to change teaching and learning to leverage the affordances that digital technologies have to offer]

From research perspective, there maybe some oversimplified formulae:

Workstation Era = Intelligent Tutoring Era;

Network Era = CSCL Era

Powerful (PC + Network) Era = Game-Based Learning Era

Low-Priced Notebook Era = 1:1 Learning Era (for schools)

Similarly, from practice perspective, there are:

PC Era = PC Lab Era

Network Era = Network Learning Era

Low-Priced Notebook Era = 1:1 Classroom Era

Perhaps not very long from now, every school will ask parents to purchase student computers for their kids, just as high schools in North America did for graphic calculators. Is 1:1 learning quickly crossing over the

innovation adoption 'chasm'? When will this happen? What will the role of researchers be, especially when there are collective endeavor to get low-priced computers into classrooms soon? Are we ready for 1:1 research? I hope, this time, not 'oversold' and 'underused', but driven by compelling 1:1 demonstration classrooms.

[Good questions to ask, and yes, I'm ready for it. The question is, are the schools?]

Technology advancement will continue to affect how 1:1 classrooms evolve. Perhaps we can look a bit ahead. Now, with these low-priced notebooks, we can incorporate intelligent tutoring and CSCL into 1:1 classrooms. But given time, we'll have much more powerful but still low-priced computers at the

hands of our students. By then we can incorporate video-game based learning into 1:1 classroom. Perhaps one day when every student can afford an electronic paper instead of a notebook, interactions in the classroom are more enhanced and technology is less visible. Nonetheless, at this moment, at least to me, 1:1 learning era has arrived for research and soon for practice.

Tak-Wai Chan

4-26-2008

Image Credit: RedHalo,
http://www.redhalo.com/images/template_main_05.jpg

"Kembali ke.... LAPTOP!!!"

budhi prasetyo — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 19:58:05 +0000

Busyet!! Laptop bin notebook alias komputer jinjing a.k.a portable computer lagi marak alias mewabah bin menjamur a.k.a trend...

Apalagi ditunjang harga yang semakin murah. Second hand pun tak papa lah... Yang penting LAPTOP!!!

Dasar KATRO'.... Yang diomongin setiap kesempatan ketemu laptooop terus. Software inilah itulah... Walaupun belum paham betul computer science, yang pada akhirnya...., INSTALL ULANG!! Ha..ha..ha..

Googling di dunia maya, aku nemu artikel menarik.. Emmm sebenarnya bukan artikel tapi berita.

Isinya soal OLPC alias bin a.k.a ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD. Buatan pabrik dari Taiwan XO-2, yang ditujukan untuk membantu program pendidikan di developing countries. Yaah.... nggak perlu disebut, negara kita termasuk di dalamnya. [isin mode ON]. Makanya target harga yang ditawarkannya nggak lebih dari US$ 200, wah piro iku cah?? Kalo 1 dolarnya Rp 10.000 aja udah 2 Juta, Wah.... murah tenan. Apalagi kalo gratis.... suangat murah...

Tapi kayaknya bukan hanya cocok untuk pendidikan anak-anak aja deh.. untuk Om-om dari keponakannya juga cocok [pinginan mode ON]. Aku juga pengen....

Salah satu keunggulan OLPC ini adalah tidak adanya keyboard yang pake tombol-tombol sing pating pethungul.. tapi diganti sama keyboard dengan layar sentuh bin touchscreen. Kalo jarinya lentik kayak jadi anak-anak mungkin bisa ya.. Nah kalo jarinya guedhe-guedhe jempol semua mungkin kerepotan. Eh ya nggak lah, masak enggak dong... Lha wong handphone aja tombolnya kecil bisa kok..., berarti aku bisa punya!!!

Salah satu plus dari OLPC dari XO-2 ini adalah Low electricity Consumption. Untuk nyala byaak!! hanya butuh beberapa watt aja. Kayaknya sesuai dengan kondisi negara kita yang listriknya byar-pet. Lagi nge-cas belum penuh trus pet, OLPC-nya bisa ON... Malah di salah satu situs news.cnet.com, katanya mereka (XO-2) punya target hanya 1 watt aja lho OLPC maemnya.

Yang asyiknya adalah (kalo gue nih...) lebih asyik buat baca e-book [mengkhayal mode ON]. Soalnya kedua layar (yang bisa buat keyboard) bisa jadi halaman buku elektronik... Layar OLPC bisa dilipat/dibuka sampai 180 derajat alias flat dan kedua layar dapat berfungsi sebagai satu bagian atau satu layar. Wah khayaknya semakin menarik hati aja untuk memilikinya. Kira-kira sampai di sini jadi berapaan ya harganya??? Belum googling dealernya yang ada di sini sih... Kalo cuma 2 juta sih berani buat beli satu untuk belajar anakku. Tapi sing "mrawani" bapake dhisik... he..he..he.. Nek wis bosen lagi diwenehke anake.....

Teknologi memang penting untuk pendidikan, apalagi pendidikan teknologi. Nah ini untuk kemajuan bangsa.... Jadi terngiler-ngiler... Khabarnya OS awal hanya LINUX (walah ini salah satu pembantai laptopku...gak mudheng blass), tapi akan direalease yang versi Windows. Kayaknya yang pake "Jendela" bakalan lebih mahal deh. Ora popo deh, yang penting kan bisa punya LAPTOOOOOP!!!

Oh ya, ketikan dan foto ini disarikan dari news.cnet.com.

[ndak diseneni... nek ora nyebutke sumbere]

Kembali ke.......LAPTOOOP!!!!!

IFA: One Laptop, No Child

Harry McCracken — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:02:10 +0000

Unlike most tradeshows in the U.S.--which are open only to grown-ups who are involved in the trade in question--the IFA show in Berlin is open to the general public, and some attendees bring their offspring. In fact, there's an area called the Kids' Playground, which is basically a couple of rooms equipped with electronic toys and kid-oriented gadgets.

When some of us American journalists dropped by, we saw four kids deeply engaged in using Asus's eee PCs--and ignoring a One Laptop Per Child XO laptop that was sitting off to one side. That may or may not be a commentary on the relative appeal of the two low-cost notebooks, but it makes for an interesting photo:

20080829,olpc,undokmatischeautosubversion,Kaukasuskrieg, Georgienkrieg oder [Kaukasischer] Fünftagekrieg,

metahunger — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 16:50:00 +0000

http://gizmodo.com/5043089/olpc-origin-bittersweet-success-and-future-of-the-xo-laptop

http://gizmodo.com/5018780/first-footage-same-olpc-xo-boots-both-sugar-and-windows-xp

http://gizmodo.com/5012825/crazy-talk-why-small-laptops-are-going-to-save-windows-xp

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/DOS_Emulator

http://gizmodo.com/5018460/photos-red-olpc-limited-edition

http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kaukasus-Konflikt_2008&oldid=50127420

http://developers.sun.com/openstorage/articles/opensolaris_storage_server.html

Sweet Home Airportland - Part I

acidblue — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:20:02 +0000

(As posted on my Facebook Notes on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 2:33pm)

Pasé dos días en Birmingham, Alabama viendo como implementan el programa One Laptop per Child (OLPC) por primera vez en una ciudad de Estados Unidos.
Todo salió muy bien. Las personas de OLPC que conocí el año pasado me recibieron con mucho cariño, tuve lindas experiencias con la gente involucrada en el programa, comí rica comida sureña (puro BBQ), disfruté de un buen hotel, y hasta logre ir de compras.

Pero ahora viene lo bueno. Les contaré mis vivencias en…
AIRPORTLAND (!!!)

AIRPORTLAND PART I: HOUSTON, YOU HAVE A PROBLEM

Todo comenzó bien en el Aeropuerto de Tocumen, el cual está muy bonito, by the way. Lo único que si acaso me hizo roll my eyes fue el par de gringos morones burlandose de la falta de eficiencia del personal del aeropuerto. Claro, porque los aeropuertos de ellos son tan, taaan eficientes (ya más adelante verán a qué me refiero).
Me monto al vuelo Panamá Houston. Todo va muy bien. Pensé que todo iba a ir de maravillas hasta que me percaté de la importante ausencia de entretenimiento aéreo: NO HABÍA TELEVISIÓN.
Man, si hasta en los buses Panamá-David hay televisión, cómo así???
Intenté recurrir a mi laptop, pero descubrí tristemente que estaba descargada. La cosa es que me entretuve leyendo y mirando por la ventana (me gusta mirar el mar con la esperanza de ver algo grande, como una ballena o algo así).
Lo único que me quedaba para romper la monotonía era comer. La agencia de viajes me había dicho que me iban a dar un “snack” en el avión, por lo cual yo esperaba un humilde paquetito de nueces (Ace Masala me discutió que ya no reparten nueces, sino pretzels), pero resultó que el “snack” era un sandwich con ensalada de frutas y postre. Comí, y entonces la aeromoza (asistente de vuelo? sobrecargo? tripulante?) pasa recogiendo la basura. Yo estaba casi en la última fila, así que ya para ese entonces la man se puso a hacer relajo. Su cantito pidiendo la “Trash… trash… trash…” se convirtió en "Trash... trash... trash... cash... jewelry... people's wallets..." LOL
Al rato repartieron los formularios de aduana, y ya nos estabamos aproximando a Houston. Sentí el avión dar vueltitas, cuando el capitán anuncia que "Debido al mal tiempo y a la saturación de aeronaves en el aeropuerto aún no podemos aterrizar, así que esperaremos aquí..." wait a minute…
AQUÍ???
AQUÍ DÓNDE?
ESTAMOS EN EL AIRE!!!
El avión se puso a dar vueltas, y obviamente, al rato de eso de "esperaremos aquí" vino el anuncio de que no ibamos a aterrizar en Houston. Air Traffic Control nos mandó a New Orleans para echar combustible y luego regresar. El capitán lo dijo todo muy bonito en inglés, pero cuando le llegó el turno al manzanillo que habla en español... "Tendremos que ir a New Orleans porque el combustible se... ehh... (largo silencio)..."
El man como que se dio cuenta de que no suena muy bonito ni muy reconfortante decir "el combustible se está ACABANDO", así que tuvo que arreglarlo lo mejor que pudo diciendo “Estamos en una situación en que nos vemos en la necesidad de aterrizar en otro lado”.
Así que el avión se dirige hacia New Orleans, y cuando llegamos allá comienzo a ver el lindo panorama…
Pantano… Pantano… Pantano… Pantano…
El saber que nos estabamos quedando sin gasolina me hizo mirar el pantano con nuevos ojos de respeto. Me acordé de los pobres gringos que se quedaron atrapados en el manglar para la invasión.

[caption id="attachment_21" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="New Orleans"][/caption]

Laptop Gift for Young Users

Rakesh Raman — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 09:42:46 +0000

OLPC Donates 100 Computers to ITU
Young participants at ITU Telecom Asia 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand will receive free XO laptops, developed and manufactured by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), at the opening of the Youth Forum on August 31. The gift of computers is part of ITU’s initiative to promote affordable devices to increase access to ICTs…Full Article

Intel to supply Classmate PCs to primary school students in Portugal

educationload — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:52:27 +0000

Earlier this month, Intel announced that they are in a partnership with the government of Portugal. This partnership will result in the supply of half a million low-cost Classmate PCs to primary students in Portugal. MIT's One Laptop Per Child initiative must be disappointed.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is the maker of the XO, a so-called $100 laptop. The relationship between this initiative and Intel has been one filled with twists and turns. They originally were fighting each other for the attention of educational computing activists. Later, they joined forces to further their goals, only to break-up this partnership.

OLPC had a major embarrassment when it rolled out the XO laptop last fall. The embarrassment was caused by having many of the orders lost for months because of a rather large distribution problem.

Now, OLPC has to watch as Intel is again on top. Intel chairman Craig Barret and Portuguese prime minister Jose Socrates announced the launch of the Magellan Initiative. This will put Intel computers in the hands of primary school students. There are roughly 650,000 primary student in Portugal, and Intel will be putting half a million computers into their hands.

Some questions still remain about this partnership and initiative. The largest question is why the distribution of the laptops is not the responsibility of the education ministry. Instead, the Ministry of Public Works, Transportation and Communications will be responsible for the distribution of the laptops. This is a similar situation to the E-Rate program, which subsidizes Internet access at schools and libraries, administered by the United States federal government. In this program, the US assigned the E-Rate program to a department different then the Department of Education. By not having all the educational initiatives in one place, it has challenged the US when they try to coordinate professional development for teachers and other curricular projects. It remains to be seen if this odd program alignment will cause similar problems in Portugal.

And now what is the impact of this on OLPC? The initiative run by MIT has struggled to live up to the expectations that were had for it. This has resulted in less attention being paid to the initiative by government officials. However, just because Intel has had better recent success doesn't mean that the MIT OLPC initiative is dead in the water. The OLPC has a new prototype machine, the XO-2. It utilizes a dual touchscreen monitor, which allows the laptop to be used as a PC or an electronic book. So long as the XO-2 doesn't suffer the same fate as the original XO in distribution, this might be a success for the OLPC program, when they finally open it up for orders.

So OLPC and MIT might be grimacing over their loss to Intel in Portugal right now, but it is a fair bet that this loss will motivate OLPC to get things right the next time.

8vas Jornadas Regionales

humitos — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 02:15:12 +0000

Anoche llegué de las 8vas Jornadas regionales. Después de un viaje cansador, no pude volver a casa porque todavía no tenía hecha la conexión del medidor de luz que por algunas cuestiones un poco raras no lo tenía. Por lo que me fuí a dormir a la casa de una amiga, ya que ni siquiera tenía batería en el celular como para poner el despertador del teléfono y hoy a las 5:40 hs había que levantarse para ir al trabajo. Asique bueno, fue un poco complicada la vuelta.

Comentando un poco mi visita por Buenos Aires día a día, sería algo por el estilo:

Miércoles

Como había sacado pasajes para el Miércoles 20 a las 00:50 hs iba a llegar tempranito a Buenos Aires, a eso de las 7 hs y me encontraba con mi primo (Gustavo) como a las 7:30. Llegué un rato antes, unos quince minutos más o menos, y aproveché para desayunar, ya que había comido poco y nada la noche anterior, aunque por otro lado me devoré la bandejita con comida del cole :) .

Ni bien llegó mi primo nos fuimos para el departamento que habíamos alquilado. Este estaba ubicado en calle Santa Fé al 2700 en un piso 13. Asique salimos de la terminal y nos tomamos el subte C e hicimos combinación con la D, rogando que todo salga bien y no terminar dando vueltas en círculos por las estaciones de subte. Por suerte llegamos sin ningún problema, salvando el sueño que nos mataba (ninguno de los dos pudo dormir mucho en el viaje).

Organizamos las cosas lo más rápido posible (tiramos todo por cualquier lado) y salimos para la Universidad de Belgrano, aprovechando que teníamos un poco de tiempo así íbamos tranquilo y nadie nos corría.

Ni bien llegamos nos encontramos con Juan "Pancho" Gonzalez, un amigo de Paraná con el que no pude coordinar para ir juntos. Dimos un par de vueltas hasta que abran la registración y nos fuimos a la primer charla: "Matriculación obligatoria de informáticos ¿A quién pretende defender?", de Federico Heinz que aunque sabía algo al respecto, nunca lo había escuchado hablar a él sobre este tema "en vivo". Me gustó mucho la charla, además Fede la tiene bastante clara y me gusta como habla.

En ese mismo horario estaba la de Facundo Batista ("Entendiendo Unicode") de la cual me quedé con ganas de ver la versión oficial de esta charla, ya que ví una preview unos meses atrás en "El Clásico bar" mientras hacíamos tiempo a que lleguen los asistentes a una reunión de PyAr. La próxima vez estaré allí.

Ni bien salimos de esta nos fuimos rápido con mi primo para la de Alecu (Alejandro Cura) y Riq (Ricardo Quesada): "iPhone, Desarrollo de juegos libres" que lamentablemente no pudieron mostrar lo mejor de la charla que eran unas demos en el iPhone porque había un problema con el cable. Bah, en realidad se lo olvidaron :) . Mostraron como se puede utilizar Cocos2d en el iPhone, muy groso.

Luego nos fuimos a comer a un mini-bar-restó que encontramos por ahí y comimos el menú del día: unos ravioles con crema mixta para mí, y ellos unos ñoquis, que aunque nos dijeron que eran de papas "frescas" tenían gusto a papel picado. Un desastre ese lugar, la atención bastante mala también. Todavía nos deben el pan.

A la vuelta, como ya estaba llegando tarde a la siguiente charla, las de las 14hs (para mí el peor horario) me quedé dando vueltas en el Stand de PyAr y jugando con la gente a responder preguntas de Python para un sorteo de libros de O'Reilly (creo que se escribe así, no tengo ganas de Googlear). Algo bastante entretenido, sobre todo cuando había alguna pregunta que yo no sabía :)

Mientras estaba en el Stand me quedé hablando con los chicos ahí, estaba Karucha, Alecu, Facundo y demás gente conocida. También me lo crucé a Macarse que no lo conocía y hablamos un rato sobre Django Book y la traducción en la cual colaboramos. Conocí a los chicos de San Luix. Además me encontré con Gastón Ramos, un amigo Santafesino Rubyense y coordinamos para que se quede en nuestro depto. En fin, hice sociales un rato bastante largo, hasta que me dí cuenta que estaba la charla "Mozilla and Browsers over the last 10 years." de Chris Hoffman y me fui al auditorio para verla. Lástima que estaba destruido, y no podía seguirle el hilo a la charla que estaba dando, me estaba durmiendo y no la encontré entretenida en ese momento. Estaba muy cansado, asique me fui otra vez al Stand.

Terminado el primer día de las jornadas ya había que ir organizando el tema de la salida nocturna, aunque estábamos todos partidos al medio decidimos salir igual, pero no sin antes recostarnos un ratito. Volvimos al departamento y con Gastón nos quedamos hablando de todo un poco mientras Gustavo se recostó un rato.

Resumiendo: volvimos a las 6 de la mañana.

Jueves

Aunque nos levantamos temprano, cerca de las 10hs, entre el subte, la caminata y el desayuno llegamos cerca de la hora de la comida, pero sí preparados para esta: nos llevamos unos sandwiches de la panadería Don Aldao de calle Santa Fe y Pueyrredon (altamente recomendable).

Ni bien llegamos, estuve en el Stand un rato haciendo sociales y charlando con los chicos de PyAr tranquilo, no estaba durmiendo pero sí descansando y recuperándome de la noche anterior. ¡Gracias Ibuprofeno por ser como sos!

Por la tarde fui a la charla de Victor Hugo Dos Santos sobre "Virtualización (XEN)" que aunque le salió todo mal la remó y remó todo lo que pudo. Un grande el tipo este, me hizo matar de la risa y aprendí muchas cosas. Lamentablemente no pudo mostrar lo que quería, pero la teoría se entendió completa :D

Esta hora, entre las 15 y las 16, mi cabeza hizo un click se ve porque no recuerdo que hice :) . Mirando el calendario veo que no asistí a ninguna charla, pero no recuerdo que pasó. Estoy empezando a sentir el efecto de las salidas nocturnas :P

Después fui a "Virtualización libre para sistemas Linux" de Rodolfo Pilas, que aunque no lo conocía de nombre cuando lo ví me acordé que ya había ido a una charla de él que trataba sobre como hacer una presentación para que salga lo mejor posible en año pasado en CaFeCONF. Fue muy gracioso porque no pudo aplicar nada de esto, hizo todo lo contrario. Resumiendo, llegó tarde, no había cañón y escribía en la pantalla del cañón como si fuera un pizarrón que se borraba (sin darse cuenta), empezó dando una charla vieja (una versión anterior a la actual) y algunas cositas más que no recuerdo. Igualmente la charla me gustó mucho y aprendí cómo funciona por arriba Xen, Vserver, OpenVz y algunos otro más. Muy interesante.

Esta noche era la reunión de Python Argentina, asique no podía faltar. Sabía que iba a ir mucha gente y además muchos nuevos, no me quería perder de conocer mucha gente de la lista a la que no les conozco las caras. Fuí con mis amigos (César, Gustavo, Gastón y Juan) pero ni bien llegamos se sentían un poco incómodos porque eramos muchos, faltaba lugar, no conocían a nadie y pensaron que lo mejor era irse. Yo me quedé festejando con los chicos cualquier cosa sólo por el hecho de seguir tomando cerveza. En un momento, cerca de las 00 hs dije basta y no quería tomar más porque al otro día a las 10 hs tenía que dar la charla con Alecu y Karucha que aún no habíamos repasado.

Cuando voy a comunicarle a Karucha el tema de nuestra charla y para que coordinemos con Alecu para ensayar, me encuentro con la gente de Misiones que muy gentilmente me ofreció seguir con esta maravillosa bebida, me negué, insitieron nuevamente y caí en la trampa rápidamente. Seguimos como hasta las 1:30 hs y ahí sí nos pusimos firmes y nos fuimos para la casa de Alecu.

Ni bien llegamos, como el nene tenía hambre, nos compramos unos fideos, una crema y un par de yogurts. Comimos como cerdos y hablamos un rato al pedo. A eso de las 3 am ensayamos la charla. Pusimos el despertador a las 8:20 si mal no recuerdo. Si, si a las 8:20... yo venía con poco dormir, alcoholizado y encima tenía que dar una charla de la cual no iba a ser como lo preparamos... Asique a descansar...

Viernes

Al segundo parpadeo ya eran las 8:20. Nooo! Estaba molido, no sabía como hacer para estar parado. Tuvimos que elegir entre 1) desayuno, 2) baño o 3) fiaca porque tampoco teníamos mucho tiempo. Yo elegí desayuno para no desnutrirme. Hubo uno que eligió fiaca, ¡Que rata!

Salimos volando para las jornadas y por suerte llegamos temprano, pudimos organizar todo dentro de lo posible pero tampoco nos apuramos tanto, porque como era a las 10 hs la gente fue llegando despacito y tranquila. Era muy temprano esa hora.

La charla salió dentro de todo bien, me hubiese gustado que estén las máquinas disponibles para asistentes y que fuese un poco más dinámica la charla, pero bueno, estiramos como pudimos y lo único que nos faltó mostrar fue la migración de un juego terminado a la OLPC que son 3 simples pasos.

Cuando terminó, desarmamos todo y ordenamos el quilombo de PC's y zapatillas que habíamos dejado en el aula. Mientras yo acumulaba nervios para mi charla que daba solito a las 14 hs. No podía dejar de pensar en esto aunque no esté pensando conscientemente, algo raro, nuevo en mí.

Por otro lado estaba nervioso porque como no había ido a dormir al departamento no estaba seguro si Gustavo me iba a traer mi Pen Drive, que es en dónde tenía los Slides de mi charla. En el transcurso de la noche los había bajado en la PC de Alecu, pero no tenía como llevarlos a mi aula. Algo totalmente solucionable, pero los nervios son más fuertes.

Comí algo medi rápido en el bar de la facultad, acompañado por Facundo. En ese momento por suerte encontré a mi primo (Gustavo) que me había llevado el Pen, asique una cosa menos para preocuparse, ahora todos los nervios estaban concentrados en la charla en sí :P .

Apronté los pañales y salí para el aula que me correspondía, me encontré con unos amigos de paso y le pregunté a que charla iban: por suerte iban a otra :D . Nos reimos un rato y entré al aula.

Empecé a configurar la notebook que había en el aula... Monto el Pen Drive, cargo el .pdf y funcionaba todo perfecto, cuando intento pasar al siguiente Slide, demoraba entre 30 y 40 segundos, algo totalmente intolerable. Nervios += 15.

Pruebo copiando el pdf al disco rígido, que como era un Live CD de Slax, este era la memoria RAM, suponía que funcionaría mucho más rápido, pero pasaba lo mismo. Nervios += 20.

A este momento cae Facundo y Alecu, dos grosos: se perdieron charlas realmente importantes para ir a la mía, de no creer. Asique no tenía que defraudarlos. Nervios += 25 :)

Facundo me sugiere utilizar el archivo de OpenOffice que tenía de los mismos Slides, pero no estaba seguro si el Slax tenía este programa, y además a simple vista no encontraba el comando. Nervios += 10.

Finalmente lo encontré al comando, probé los slides y andaba bien fluido, lo que me tranquilizó un poco. En este momento me fijé que cantidad de gente había en el aula y eran unas 10 personas creo, realmente no sé. Por otro lado tampoco eran las 14 hs todavía, asique podía esperar un poco más y además seguramente caían tarde por el tema del almuerzo. Fueron feos los dos horarios que me tocaron.

Bueno viendo que la gente no llegaba y que los nervios se incrementaban a medida que el tiempo pasaba me mandé a decir "Bueno" (con la variable Nervios en 80%), típica palabra rompe-hielo inicial de cualquier charla, también llamada muletilla. Cerré la puerta del aula, y me mandé de cabeza, ya estaba todo perdido y el pañal manchado :P

Con el paso del tiempo fue llegando más gente a mi charla (si lo tenía que decir, "mi charla" :D ) y si no me equivoco llegamos a ser unos 25 o por ahí, que para ser la primera charla que doy en mi vida y el pañal manchado son demasiados.

Me gustaría que sobre mi charla hablen los que la vieron, aunque yo tengo algunos puntos que remarcar también. Desde algún punto de vista me considero un asistente a mi propia charla. Pero algunas cosas que hay que mejorar son los nervios, que me hicieron saltearme algunas cosas, por ejemplo en mi presentación tenía algunas cositas más que contar (nada importante, pero llena y está bueno saber a qué se dedica brevemente la persona que te va a hablar durante la siguiente hora). En la estructura de los directorios se me borraron de la mente los ejemplo de cada uno de los directorios, que había algunos en los que tenía que contar algunas cosas interesantes.

Pasando la media hora de charla, me empecé a dar cuenta que me estaba sobrando tiempo y lamentablemente las cosas en las que podía mandar mucha fruta ya habían pasado, asique traté de disimularla y hablar un poco más al pedo de lo que venía, pero mi memoria estaba nublaba con los nervios. Intenté estirar lo más que pude y me sobraron algo así como 15 minutos después del espacio para preguntas. Una lástima.

Lo mejor de todo esto fue cuando terminó :) . Estaba realmente tranquilo, lo peor ya había pasado. Mientras desarmo la notebook se me acercan unos chicos a preguntarme sobre programación web en Python, les comenté de TurboGears y Django. Ellos venían del mundo PHP, y creo que los convencí bastante con lo que les dije. Espero que salgan usando Django y luego me enseñen a mí. También les mencioné el libro que tradujimos entre todos. Re buena onda los pibes, uno me escribió un mal recordándome que en alguna oportunidad ya habíamos chateado y demás. Yo como siempre no ubico a nadie.

Ni bien terminó la mía, me fui para la de Gastón Ramos con "Active Record Sabor Ruby. No más SELECT * FROM" que estuvo buena, además pudo mostrar un poco de código en el intérprete interactivo de Ruby. Hubo sorteo de libros, que no gané y que quería uno :( . La próxima será

El tiempo que quedaba de jornadas antes de la última charla, lo dediqué a recolectar todo tipo de papelitos, carteles, remeras y demás. Fui a la charla que sponsoreaba "Elserver.com" que no recuerdo el nombre ni quien la daba. Pero llegué tarde y no pude captar todo lo que dijo, aunque si me llevé 3 remeritas :)

La última charla hablaba sobre las computadoras como hardware y porqué cada vez eran más lentas en vez de más rápidas como todos pensamos, un tema interesante pero lo hizo aburrido Rik van Riel. No me gustó mucho la charla. En un momento quise escuchar la traducción simultánea que hacían las chicas por la radio y era lo mismo que escuchar LT 8 Cadena Nacional, no tenía nada pero nada que ver lo que estaban diciendo las chicas con lo que hablaba este tipo. Aunque era demasiado gracioso.

Balanceando todo, la pasé muy bien, hice nuevas amistades, conocí gente personalmente, y reafirmé lazos que ya existían con algunos compañeros de PyAr. Me encantó el viaje y no me parece para nada poco haber debutado en las 8vas Jornadas. Estoy muy contento de poder haber asistido allí.

One laptop for every Niuean child - BBC News

EziGo — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:07:59 +0000

The One Laptop Per Child programme has lived up to its name in the tiny South Pacific nation of Niue, where 100% of children now have one.

500 of the programme's XO laptops were distributed this week to primary and high school students.

BBC NEWS | Technology | One laptop for every Niuean child.

This is a nation of a couple of thousands residents close to New Zealand. They have offered free wireless internet to all residents in 2003 and education is free for the first 8 years.

On the other side of the world, the initiative of the OLPC in African countries raised concerns about providing the basics of living like food and mosquito nets rather than "useless" technology. Others argue that this technology will bring prosperity in the future.

Ilha no Pacífico distribui laptops de US$ 100 para todos seus estudantes

xanymorex — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 22:13:59 +0000

Cerca de 500 estudantes dos ensinos fundamentais e secundários em Niue terão laptops XOs dentro das salas após doação da OLPC.

A ilha de Niue, no Pacífico Sul, será o primeiro país a distribuir laptops educacionais para todos seus estudantes.

A organização One Laptop per Child anunciou nesta sexta-feira (21/08) a doação e 500 notebooks XO para a administração da ilha, que deverá distribui-los entre todos seus alunos dos ensinos primário e secundário.

Em anúncio oficial, a OLPC afirmou que a doação faz parte de uma estratégia do grupo de distribuir cerca de 5 mil laptops para países da região.

Ainda que seja voltado primordialmente às crianças, adolescentes que freqüentam o antigo ginásio também usarão o laptop dentro das salas de aula.

Niue ganhou atenção da mídia em 2003 quando anunciou que ofereceria redes de acesso à internet sem fio para todos seus habitantes - na época, estimados em 1,5 mil pessoas.

Além de Niue, estudantes uruguaios já estão utilizando os laptops educacionais da OLPC.

Em março, o projeto Ceibal anunciou que o país abriria licitação para comprar mais 200 mil notebooks educacionais após encomendar 100 mil XOs em outubro de 2007.

No Brasil, a licitação responsável pela escolha da plataforma educacional está parada no Ministério da Educação após o impasse entre quanto o Governo queria pagar e quanto aPositivo, vencedora do primeiro pregão, estava apta a pedir.

Referência - idgnow.com.br

Niue, el primer país del mundo en dotar a todos sus niños de una portátil

joell14 — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 02:17:10 +0000

San Francisco (EFE).- Niue, una pequeña isla del Pacífico Sur, se ha convertido en la primera nación del mundo en dotar a todos sus niños de un ordenador portátil, gracias a una iniciativa de la ONG estadounidense "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC).

Fuentes oficiales de Niue, un territorio integrado en la Polinesia y asociado a Nueva Zelanda, anunciaron hoy que todos los estudiantes de primaria y secundaria del país, unos 500 en total, recibirán un ordenador XO, fabricado por OLPC y más conocido como el "portátil de los cien dólares".

Jimmie Rodgers, director general de la Secretaría de la Comunidad del Pacífico, una agencia para el desarrollo de la región, dijo que estos ordenadores "tienen el potencial de revolucionar la educación en formas que es difícil de imaginar".

Con un PIB de apenas ocho millones de dólares y una población de unas 1.500 personas, no es la primera vez que Niue acapara titulares por sus iniciativas tecnológicas y en 2003 se convirtió en el primer país del mundo en proveer acceso inalámbrico gratis a Internet a todos sus ciudadanos.

Los ordenadores han sido donados por OLPC, aunque normalmente la organización los vende a los gobiernos de los países en vías de desarrollo para que ellos los distribuyan entre los escolares.

OLPC es una iniciativa lanzada por el Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts y en ella han participado empresas como "Google" y "News Corporation".

Los portátiles son prácticamente irrompibles, permiten conectarse a Internet y han sido diseñados pensando especialmente en los niños y en las condiciones de países donde no siempre es fácil acceder a la red eléctrica para recargar las baterías de un ordenador.

Aunque el precio final de las computadoras prácticamente dobla el objetivo inicial de 100 dólares, OLPC espera reducir el coste de los portátiles en breve.

[niue]

Andre — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:17:39 +0000

Até hoje, mais precisamente 15 minutos atrás, também para mim esta palavra não tinha qualquer significado. Se me pedissem para arriscar eu diria que era uma divindade africana ou o novo site social do cuil.

Entretanto, Niue é um país ilha da Oceania, muito próxima à Nova Zelândia (do Jaca Paladium), vizinha das ilhas Samoa, Tonga e Cook. Certamente não tive a oportunidade de ver algum atleta de Niue nas Olimpíadas 2008, nem conheci um "niueano" jogando World of Warcraft pela net.

Acontece que hoje, no site da BBC, foi publicada a notícia de que este minúsculo país, fora dos limites do conhecimento geográfico médio, acaba de completar a aquisição de uma leva de XO Laptops, também conhecidos pelo nome do projeto OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), suficiente para fazer com que 100% (cem por cento) dos alunos do ensino fundamental e médio de suas escolas tenham um. Não somente, mas há quase cinco anos, este mesmo país foi o primeiro no mundo todo a oferecer internet Wifi grátis para todos os seus habitantes.

(...) laptops have the potential to revolutionise education in ways that are difficult to imagine.

Esta foi a declaração de Jimmie Rodgers, um dos envolvidos.

É de dar inveja a todos os brasileiros que (sabem) tem que aturar pessoas de pensamento muito, muito mais curto querendo dar pitaco naquilo que não entendem.

É um tanto óbvio que esta iniciativa não vai fazer com que Niue torne-se uma potência mundial. Mas e daí? Finlândia, Suíça, Dinamarca e Suécia, dentre outros, estão aí para mostrar que não é necessária uma economia pujante e guerras pelos cotovelos para afastar-se da miséria social. Quem sabe um dia aqui no Brasil as pessoas percebam que um computador não é apenas um eletrodoméstico, que a internet não é apenas para email, msn e orkut, e que o software não é um utilitário de consumo, mas conhecimento em sua forma mais pura.

Richard Stallman, Linux, OLPC, and why proprietary software is necessary.

Ryan — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:30:45 +0000

[caption id="attachment_792" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="The freedom to run what I tell you, biatch! WAAAPAA!!!"][/caption]

I run into some things on Stumbleupon, some are helpful, some are funny, most are ridiculously stupid.

I stumbled onto Stallman attacking the XO Laptop, the $100 laptop for school children in less fortunate countries.

The XO Laptop uses "Free Software" like Linux, and a stripped down desktop manager called Sugar, and "Free" drivers for all the hardware in it except for one device, a wireless chipset, that is the defining feature in the device. The chipset allows the laptop to connect not only to the internet, but to other networked laptops and devices in the "cloud network", it's a really cool feature of the laptop that really makes it 10 times as useful as it would be without it.

Why was Stallman attacking such a device?

It requires about 100 kilobytes of firmware to make it work, you see, and that makes the whole laptop evil, unless you delete the firmware file and make the laptop kind of half functional, then Stallman "Can't endorse the device".

Now don't get me wrong, I like "Free Software" when it works, and it often does get you 90% of the way there, but I'm willing to wager that not many Linux users have "only Free Software", if you want a smooth experience, you'll also have Java, Flash, codecs for proprietary formats, binary drivers (the only ones worth anything) for your video card, possibly firmware or Windows drivers for your wireless, and if you're like me, Wine and/or Cedega for Windows programs and games that have no equivalent on Linux.

Why do these programs have no equivalent on Linux?

Well, if you look at the immediate cause of the problem, it's because very few people use Linux, and many people don't use Linux because the typical distribution, say Debian or Fedora are all but useless to them out of the box. It's not very much fun reading a million pages of documentation to get something running, unless you're just using it for a hobby.

A PC that doesn't have much hardware support, and won't let you play music, games, or youtube videos is not an attractive proposition, when Windows or the Mac can easily do all of this out of the box.

It's also why most people are using Ubuntu, which makes it very easy to get a functional PC, without nagging or being real preachy about it.

The "Free Software Only" mentality, or the perception of it anyway, amongst Linux users (it's really only a few unfortunately prominent people like Stallman) is hurting Linux's credibility as a good, modern operating system.

Stallman also wants people to refer to Linux as GNU/Linux, even though this really is inappropriate, unless we start naming the OS out of all of it's parts, rather than the sum. To get a Linux system working, it takes software from dozens of projects, and probably a dozen major ones, the GNU project played a part, but probably not the most important one.

The most appropriate way to name a Linux system, is to call it Linux, as the entire userland can and has been ported to several other kernels, including Solaris through Nexenta, FreeBSD through Debian kFreeBSD, and Darwin through the GNU on Darwin project. Users want one word to call the OS, not a paragraph, and so the GNU/Linux deal is essentially spam that some projects have unfortunately bought into.

And furthermore, Richard Stallman doesn't only use "Free Software", I'm sure that he drives a car, cars have an onboard computer, and I doubt the ROM that runs that computer is under a "Free Software" license, a lot of supermarkets and restaurants run IBM's AIX or Microsoft Windows, so I'll suppose he doesn't eat either.

Televisions have software to run them, so I suppose he's not watching TV, video game consoles have proprietary operating systems and software, so no consoles either.

If Richard Stallman is so worried about 100K of firmware in his laptop, he must also use an analog thermostat and an oven and microwave with analog controls for the food he can't buy.

For that matter, since every DSL and Cable modem I know of uses proprietary firmware, how does he get online?

For that matter, he shouldn't turn his monitor on, because it has an internal ROM with a proprietary menu driven OS.

People like him scare all the companies writing good software away.

It really angers me how apathetic the companies writing this software are, and how most are ignoring Linux because of loudmouth schnooks like that.

Trust me, you don't want a system that is all "Free Software", the GNU project endorses a Linux distribution called Gnewsense (ironically rhyming with nuisance), based on Ubuntu, but with all "non-free" modules you probably need stripped out. The OS is slow, and broken, and can't do much, therefore very few people are crazy enough to actually use it, and I bet you probably hadn't even heard of it til now.

Now assume for a minute that the Free Software Foundation had actually been competent enough to get their HURD kernel to work, and Linux had never been, HURD would have forever been this half-implemented OS with drivers for whatever the few dozen people working on it happened to have in their computer, and only the bored "elite" would use this "hobbyist" system.

If GNU/HURD was a real OS, and there was no Linux, I'm sure the FSF would do nasty things with it, like they do with GMediaServer, which if you didn't read that one, they got patches to enable an XBOX 360 transfer mode and wouldn't incorporate them.

You do not want them making your kernel, unless you want them putting in blocks or omitting features to let things like your hardware work.

There's no danger of that though, I'll quote Wikipedia cause the truth is sometimes funnier than anything I could come up with:

"Development on the GNU operating system began in 1984 and initially made good progress.....Development of the Hurd has proceeded slowly.....the Hurd is still not considered suitable for production environments. Development in general has not met expectations, and there are still bugs and missing features"

Free Software as an ideal is fine, Free Software Only as a philosophy is laughable and stupid, and has proven itself time and time again to not work.

If Stallman really wants to "save the XO Laptop from Windows", he's going to have to start by showing the OLPC project that Linux promoters are not all kooks, or else they'll keep on using what works.

[caption id="attachment_794" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Or not....."][/caption]

Other really stupid and/or offensive things Stallman says in that article:

1. He equates having children use Windows with giving them heroin, crack cocaine, or LSD.

No Richard, those are what we call REAL problems, I've never seen Windows users in the corner, shaking and saying "I need my fix man!!!".

I've never seen Windows kill people, so this is what we call a shock statement, one which trivializes drug problems, making Stallman unethical and ignorant.

[caption id="attachment_787" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="This is your child on Windows XP. Richard Stallman says so! (Track marks and .45 long slide with laser sighting sold separately)"][/caption]

2. Porting the Sugar Desktop to Windows is a bad thing that shouldn't be done.

Because Richard is the leader of the "Free Software Foundation", which promotes using the software for any purpose, oh wait...

So you're anti-Microsoft, more than pro-Free Software, Richard?

Sugar is probably the biggest reason the XO is not regarded as a "real" computer, an Ubuntu variant with a real multitasking window manager such as Enlightenment (like OpenGeu) or FluxBox (Fluxbuntu) quite possibly could have saved it. I used Sugar on my own PC for five minutes before getting rid of it. It just makes the whole system feel like some kind of a toy that happened to be built by computer geeks that don't understand how human beings function.

Now the choice is doubling the laptop's price for the "One License Per Child" Windows version, or getting stuck with some bizarre nightmare of pictograms.

[caption id="attachment_785" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Somebody tell me what the hell this is, and if you would use it."][/caption]

3. Hints at abandoning the XO for their "insolence"

Even though they still offer and promote Linux, giving people the choice is a bad thing, even though Free Software is "all about choice".

[caption id="attachment_790" align="alignnone" width="346" caption="Nyquil or Dayquil? Oh!"][/caption]

So Stallman, please continue to ignore the practical benefits of a Linux system:

Stable, secure, well performing UNIX clone. And it doesn't cost anything.

Those are the benefits a typical user sees.

And focus all your effort on trivial and stupid crap:

Non-Free drivers.

I'm happy when a company makes Linux drivers, period, I may get angry if they do something wrong, but there's no reason to not use software with the "only" reason being that the company that made it is protecting trade secrets and the device works just as well for you in any case.

If companies didn't make kernel drivers for their products, very few devices would work well in Linux, if they even worked at all.

Practically all functional drivers on Linux are written by the company that built the hardware, chipset makers like Intel and AMD release those drivers under GPL license because they want their hardware to be popular and just work, Intel is not competing with anyone on their boards for onboard functionality.

Companies like Nvidia, for now, have no proper incentives to do this. For the time being, ATI's hardware is way behind them, and their drivers are a joke (Latest Radeon can't make it through GLXINFO without segmentation fault).

At least in the short term, ATI is the next best thing to no competition, it remains seen what ATI does to fix this. It is quite possible that the development of a "Free Software" driver will be protracted and end up the same or worse than their binary-only one.

But the bottom line remains that the FSF is equally "unethical" to Microsoft, just on the other end of the dial.

So remember, at least some people are using Linux because it's practical, not because they approve of the FSF's "terror" practices.

[caption id="attachment_771" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="We have school now!.......Oh noez, it has a firmware!"][/caption]

Sistema Operativo OLPC (Plan Ceibal)

Damian Muraña — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 03:15:19 +0000

Para aquel que no estaba enterado de esto, esta disponible para la descarga la ISO de el sistema operativo OLPC SDK. El usado en los PC's del Plan Ceibal, es un sistema GNU/Linux basado en RedHat que usa como entorno de escritorio Sugar y tiene aplicaciones orientadas al aprendizaje.

No esta demás descargarlo si desean probar lo que son las XO, o simplemente por curiosidad.

Descargar