OLPC - One Lptop Per Child

[Michael O'Dell]

Terry Fox wrote:
> How many guys are getting these units?  It looks like they might be able to
> decode PSK31 at a minimum.
> 
> On other forums, there is a discussion about whether they can do SDR work,
> as they only have a mono mic sound input, even though the sound chip itself
> can do stereo.  One can always use an exernal USB sound card.
> 
> A bigger issue may be the low storage.  Only 1GB of RAM as storage , and no
> rotating memory.
> 
> Back to bit-twiddling and assembly languge or C to tweak the last byte out.
> 
> I'm on the fence whether to go for the two-for-one deal....
> 
> Terry
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Tacos mailing list
> Tacos at amrad.org
> http://www.amrad.org/mailman/listinfo/tacos

My "Buy-two-for-$400-get-one-yourself" XO came yesterday.

Note that there's a socket for an SD card
and those hold multiple (some might even say
"many") gigabytes.

they are very cute. the keyboard is designed for
little fingers, although i manage to type on it.

the machine is a marvel of design. *lots* of things
to learn from looking at the machine.

the nominal GUI environment is done with Squeak -
a very good implementation of Smalltalk done
by Alan Kay, David Reed, and other luminaries.
(www.squeak.com) yes, there is an X11 server
in there!

I suggest that if you want a more orthodox but
still small "pc", you should look at the Asus EEE.
you can get the 8gig-flash version from Newegg
and the memory can be upgraded, too. it also
runs Linux but is more a "true PC" in that
WindozeXtraPain runs outa the box; not so with
the XO.

both machines have complete software available
online and downloadable.

The Asus EEE will sell 350K units by year-end.
that's 50K more than their wilded dreams and they
are re-vamping their production for next year.
the units will be available in multiple colors, too.
(Mostly for Asian market, but who knows...)

the EEE runs a "classic Linux desktop" while
the XO is, as I said above, quite different.

If we aren't quite yet to some kind of tipping point,
i think you can see it from here.

I'm not forecasting global revolt or wholesale
defection from Voleware, but Norway just passed
a law requiring the government to use open standards
for all file formats.  MS Word is gonna have to
learn to make nice before its over.

and Vista, the New Coke of Operating Systems,
was just listed as "Biggest Tech Disappointment of 2007"
by *PC Magazine*.  talking about biting the
hand up your sock-puppet butt....

	cheers,
	-mo