Re: Journal integration for Scratch
On 13.01.2009, at 06:55, Philipp Kocher wrote: Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that feature. Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon. Thanks! This is not documented anywhere I know of. So I put it here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure Hope someone can proof-read / confirm. Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file /usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm sugar- artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is adding the file /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Interesting ... thanks for the archaeology :) Eben: see, I did remember correctly there was an icon for the document independent of the activity ;) That must be the smaller version. - Bert - ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Journal integration for Scratch
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 06:55, Philipp Kocher philipp.koc...@gmx.net wrote: Tomeu Vizoso wrote: On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 18:50, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 12.01.2009, at 18:11, Tomeu Vizoso wrote: So what would the Scratch activity have to do so files put into the Journal (maybe by downloading) are displayed using a Scratch icon rather than the generic document icon? Shipping a mimetypes.xml file inside the bundle as explained here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure Sugar will call update-mime-database and will merge that file into the xdg mime database. I think that John is already trying this. Guess I'm confused then - I thought that's exactly what Philipp had done. I think he just changed the mime_types field in the .info file. And I just checked and it does work with Etoys projects. When downloading one it indeed gets an etoys icon (although at a smaller size - why is that?) No idea, though I think that the mime database is updated in the etoys rpm and not in the bundle, am I right? Regards, Tomeu Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that feature. Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon. Yes, you are right in that you don't need to mess with mimetypes.xml if you only want to set the icon for a mime type. mimetype.xml also serves to associate a file extension with a mime type, and Scratch might also want this so that scratch projects copied from a removable files are correctly identified as such. Thanks, Tomeu John, could you please make the following changes in the next Scratch version: - add the line mime_types = application/x-scratch-project to the activity.info file - copy the scratch icon to application-x-scratch-project.svg in the activity directory Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file /usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm sugar-artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is adding the file /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake-project.svg. Regards, Philipp ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
OLPC and Catalyst invitation to meet Walter Bender - sugarlabs founder
Hello New Zealand OLPC volunteers and friends OLPC Wellington http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Projects/WellyNZTesters and Catalyst IT Ltd http://www.catalyst.net.nz/ invite you to meet Walter Bender, founder of sugarlabs http://sugarlabs.org/, a non-profit foundation. Python based, Sugar enhances educational experience by emphasising collaboration and expression. Sugar is the interface used on XOs distributed around the world by OLPC. Venue - Catalyst House http://www.catalyst.net.nz/contact, 150 Willis Street, Wellington. RSVP session 12-2 or 5-7 on 27 January by emailing tabi...@learning.ac.nz Looking forward to seeing you there. Tabitha Roder (64)21482229 Support OLPC G1G1 - laptop.org/xo ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: HTML-based/Browser apps (was Re: anti-cheating)
Carlos Nazareno wrote: You can go with Processing (http://www.processing.org/) but Java is a bit problematic on the XO. Heh, http://ejohn.org/blog/processingjs/ is the Processing language running in a canvas. Works on XO, slowly. (I hope XULRunner 1.9.1 with the Tracemonkey JIT shows up in joyrunner builds.) Why put yourself through unnecessary pain with the HTML5/Javascript/CSS/SVG/whathaveyouforaudiovideowebcam combo? Add to that the added headache of the standards fragmented browser landscape. There is no fragmentation, the XO ships with XULRunner. Flash gets the job done, and gets it done easy. I worked at Macromedia for 9 years, I know well of Flash's many benefits, and many downsides for OLPC. Rather than debate it, if there's Flash content relevant to OLPC's mission, mention it on the wiki. A few days ago I added a brief mention of the SWF format to http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image_file_formats before I noticed someone had already put it under List of objectionable formats on the talk page; I don't care deeply either way. -- =S Page ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Journal integration for Scratch
Hi, Phillip. Thanks for all your hard work in tracking this down. I had looked at several other packages, including EToys, and couldn't figure out from them how to do this. I will make these changes to the next XO Scratch bundle. Is that all I need to do? What about the mime types XML file similar to the one added by Etoys? Does that turn out to be unnecessary? -- John On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:55 AM, Philipp Kocher wrote: Tomeu Vizoso wrote: On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 18:50, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 12.01.2009, at 18:11, Tomeu Vizoso wrote: So what would the Scratch activity have to do so files put into the Journal (maybe by downloading) are displayed using a Scratch icon rather than the generic document icon? Shipping a mimetypes.xml file inside the bundle as explained here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure Sugar will call update-mime-database and will merge that file into the xdg mime database. I think that John is already trying this. Guess I'm confused then - I thought that's exactly what Philipp had done. I think he just changed the mime_types field in the .info file. And I just checked and it does work with Etoys projects. When downloading one it indeed gets an etoys icon (although at a smaller size - why is that?) No idea, though I think that the mime database is updated in the etoys rpm and not in the bundle, am I right? Regards, Tomeu Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that feature. Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon. John, could you please make the following changes in the next Scratch version: - add the line mime_types = application/x-scratch-project to the activity.info file - copy the scratch icon to application-x-scratch-project.svg in the activity directory Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file /usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm sugar- artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is adding the file /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Regards, Philipp ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Journal integration for Scratch
On 13.01.2009, at 13:30, John Maloney wrote: Hi, Phillip. Thanks for all your hard work in tracking this down. I had looked at several other packages, including EToys, and couldn't figure out from them how to do this. I will make these changes to the next XO Scratch bundle. Is that all I need to do? What about the mime types XML file similar to the one added by Etoys? Does that turn out to be unnecessary? That file provides the mapping from file extensions to MIME types, so it is needed for Scratch bundles downloaded from the Web or a USB memory stick to be recognized as such. - Bert - -- John On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:55 AM, Philipp Kocher wrote: Tomeu Vizoso wrote: On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 18:50, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 12.01.2009, at 18:11, Tomeu Vizoso wrote: So what would the Scratch activity have to do so files put into the Journal (maybe by downloading) are displayed using a Scratch icon rather than the generic document icon? Shipping a mimetypes.xml file inside the bundle as explained here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure Sugar will call update-mime-database and will merge that file into the xdg mime database. I think that John is already trying this. Guess I'm confused then - I thought that's exactly what Philipp had done. I think he just changed the mime_types field in the .info file. And I just checked and it does work with Etoys projects. When downloading one it indeed gets an etoys icon (although at a smaller size - why is that?) No idea, though I think that the mime database is updated in the etoys rpm and not in the bundle, am I right? Regards, Tomeu Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that feature. Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon. John, could you please make the following changes in the next Scratch version: - add the line mime_types = application/x-scratch-project to the activity.info file - copy the scratch icon to application-x-scratch-project.svg in the activity directory Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file /usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm sugar- artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is adding the file /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Regards, Philipp ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Journal integration for Scratch
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:54 AM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 13.01.2009, at 06:55, Philipp Kocher wrote: Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that feature. Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon. Thanks! This is not documented anywhere I know of. So I put it here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure Hope someone can proof-read / confirm. Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file /usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm sugar- artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is adding the file /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Interesting ... thanks for the archaeology :) Eben: see, I did remember correctly there was an icon for the document independent of the activity ;) Indeed. However, that one's not mine, and I wasn't aware of it. I think it must have been copied before I or someone else (don't recall) matched the Etoys icon to the spec. I just checked the file you mention, and it clearly has a 75x75 pixel canvas, which is why it's being scaled down. - Eben That must be the smaller version. - Bert - ___ Sugar-devel mailing list sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
XOCamp 2: Day 2 update
We've made a few schedule changes today, with talks about customization, signing, and activation moved to later in the afternoon, and a longer session on the school server through the morning. http://blog.laptop.org/2009/01/12/xo-camp-on-tv/ Feel free to leave comments, questions and ideas on the schedule's talkpage if you can't join in person. SJ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Journal integration for Scratch
On 13.01.2009, at 17:22, Eben Eliason wrote: /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Interesting ... thanks for the archaeology :) Eben: see, I did remember correctly there was an icon for the document independent of the activity ;) Indeed. However, that one's not mine, and I wasn't aware of it. I think it must have been copied before I or someone else (don't recall) matched the Etoys icon to the spec. I just checked the file you mention, and it clearly has a 75x75 pixel canvas, which is why it's being scaled down. I see. So this is really really old, from before the icon dimensions were changed. Someone who understood the system back then must have taken the Etoys icon and checked it in as the mime type icon. Would make sense to upgrade it to the current icon now :) - Bert - ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Journal integration for Scratch
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 13.01.2009, at 17:22, Eben Eliason wrote: /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Interesting ... thanks for the archaeology :) Eben: see, I did remember correctly there was an icon for the document independent of the activity ;) Indeed. However, that one's not mine, and I wasn't aware of it. I think it must have been copied before I or someone else (don't recall) matched the Etoys icon to the spec. I just checked the file you mention, and it clearly has a 75x75 pixel canvas, which is why it's being scaled down. I see. So this is really really old, from before the icon dimensions were changed. Someone who understood the system back then must have taken the Etoys icon and checked it in as the mime type icon. Would make sense to upgrade it to the current icon now :) Right. From my understanding of the conversation, this needs to be updated within the bundle, right? This isn't something that should need to live in artwork. - Eben - Bert - ___ Sugar-devel mailing list sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: [Sugar-devel] Journal integration for Scratch
On 13.01.2009, at 19:14, Eben Eliason wrote: On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 12:49 PM, Bert Freudenberg b...@freudenbergs.de wrote: On 13.01.2009, at 17:22, Eben Eliason wrote: /usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake- project.svg. Interesting ... thanks for the archaeology :) Eben: see, I did remember correctly there was an icon for the document independent of the activity ;) Indeed. However, that one's not mine, and I wasn't aware of it. I think it must have been copied before I or someone else (don't recall) matched the Etoys icon to the spec. I just checked the file you mention, and it clearly has a 75x75 pixel canvas, which is why it's being scaled down. I see. So this is really really old, from before the icon dimensions were changed. Someone who understood the system back then must have taken the Etoys icon and checked it in as the mime type icon. Would make sense to upgrade it to the current icon now :) Right. From my understanding of the conversation, this needs to be updated within the bundle, right? This isn't something that should need to live in artwork. What's the precedence of icons in the system vs the bundle? - Bert - ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
bounce moved to gitorious at SL
Hello I've followed the instructions on http://sugarlabs.org/go/ActivityTeam/How_to_migrate_from_OLPC to have bounce on gitorious. http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/bounce cheers!. Rafael Ortiz ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Activities migration status
Awesome, thank you Rafael! Today I went through dev.laptop.org/git identifying those projects that contain Sugar activities. http://sugarlabs.org/go/ActivityTeam/ActivityStatus Still remaining is to go through Activities/All (and code.google.com, personal sites, etc) and find those activities which do not have d.l.o repositories. The list is *massive*. I had no idea we had so many cool activities in various stages of development! The process of finding their authors and migrating them to SL will result in some great new software for Sugar. It will be a lot of work but I know the end result will be worth it. Best regards, Wade On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero dir...@gmail.com wrote: Hello I've followed the instructions on http://sugarlabs.org/go/ActivityTeam/How_to_migrate_from_OLPC to have bounce on gitorious. http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/bounce cheers!. Rafael Ortiz ___ Sugar-devel mailing list sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Activities migration status
Hi Wade Thanks to you..there are too many people excited about the activity team. i'll keep helping :). the work is indeed massive! Rafael Ortiz On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 11:10 PM, Wade Brainerd wad...@gmail.com wrote: Awesome, thank you Rafael! Today I went through dev.laptop.org/git identifying those projects that contain Sugar activities. http://sugarlabs.org/go/ActivityTeam/ActivityStatus Still remaining is to go through Activities/All (and code.google.com, personal sites, etc) and find those activities which do not have d.l.o repositories. The list is *massive*. I had no idea we had so many cool activities in various stages of development! The process of finding their authors and migrating them to SL will result in some great new software for Sugar. It will be a lot of work but I know the end result will be worth it. Best regards, Wade On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:05 PM, Rafael Enrique Ortiz Guerrero dir...@gmail.com wrote: Hello I've followed the instructions on http://sugarlabs.org/go/ActivityTeam/How_to_migrate_from_OLPC to have bounce on gitorious. http://git.sugarlabs.org/projects/bounce cheers!. Rafael Ortiz ___ Sugar-devel mailing list sugar-de...@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/sugar-devel ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Journal integration for Scratch
Hi John
Yes, we need the mimetypes.xml file as well (thanks Tomeu I forgot the
USB flash drive use case). I have tested the attached mimetypes.xml. It
is working fine. Put it in the activity directory.
Furthermore we have to change the scratch-activity script, so the
parameter with the scratch project object-id gets converted
(copy-from-journal) in a file and passed on to scratch. See the attached
scratch-activity script. I am not an expert with bash scripts, so please
give feedback.
I would like to extend the script so project files in the journal
directory are copied back to the journal after exiting scratch, but for
opening project it should work fine.
Best regards,
Philipp
John Maloney wrote:
Hi, Phillip.
Thanks for all your hard work in tracking this down. I had looked at
several other packages, including EToys, and couldn't figure out from
them how to do this.
I will make these changes to the next XO Scratch bundle.
Is that all I need to do? What about the mime types XML file similar to
the one added by Etoys? Does that turn out to be unnecessary?
-- John
On Jan 13, 2009, at 12:55 AM, Philipp Kocher wrote:
Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 18:50, Bert Freudenberg
b...@freudenbergs.de wrote:
On 12.01.2009, at 18:11, Tomeu Vizoso wrote:
So what would the Scratch activity have to do so files put into the
Journal
(maybe by downloading) are displayed using a Scratch icon rather
than the
generic document icon?
Shipping a mimetypes.xml file inside the bundle as explained here:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activity_bundles#Bundle_Structure
Sugar will call update-mime-database and will merge that file into the
xdg mime database.
I think that John is already trying this.
Guess I'm confused then - I thought that's exactly what Philipp had
done.
I think he just changed the mime_types field in the .info file.
And I just checked and it does work with Etoys projects. When
downloading
one it indeed gets an etoys icon (although at a smaller size - why
is that?)
No idea, though I think that the mime database is updated in the etoys
rpm and not in the bundle, am I right?
Regards,
Tomeu
Thanks Tomeu to lead me to the /home/olpc/.local directory. However, the
mimetypes.xml is not necessary to get the icon in the journal. I just
had to copy the scratch icon file in the activity directory to
application-x-scratch-project.svg (also in the scratch activity
dirctory). The Memorize Activity is a good example for using that
feature.
Sugar has to be restarted after installing Scratch to show the icon.
John, could you please make the following changes in the next Scratch
version:
- add the line mime_types = application/x-scratch-project to the
activity.info file
- copy the scratch icon to application-x-scratch-project.svg in the
activity directory
Etoys gets configured by different packages. e.g. the rpm
etoys-3.0.2153-1.noarch is adding the file
/usr/share/mime/packges/etoys.xml and the rpm
sugar-artwork-0.82.3-1.olpc3 is
adding the file
/usr/share/icons/sugar/scalable/mimetypes/application-x-squake-project.svg.
Regards,
Philipp
?xml version=1.0 encoding=UTF-8?
mime-info xmlns=http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info;
mime-type type=application/x-scratch-project
commentScratch Project/comment
glob pattern=*.sb/
/mime-type
/mime-info
#!/bin/sh
# Author: Bert Freudenberg
# Modified by: John Maloney
# Purpose: Run Scratch using the Squeak virtual machine
echo scratch-activity
echo $@
echo $0 $@
echo
# arguments are unordered, have to loop
args=
while [ -n $2 ] ; do
case $1 in
-b | --bundle-id) bundle_id=$2 ; args=$args BUNDLE_ID $2 ;;
-a | --activity-id) activity_id=$2 ; args=$args ACTIVITY_ID $2;;
-o | --object-id) object_id=$2 ; args=$args OBJECT_ID $2;;
-u | --uri) uri=$2 ; args=$args URI $2;;
*) echo unknown argument $1 $2 ;;
esac
shift;shift
done
# really need bundle id and activity id
if [ -z $bundle_id -o -z $activity_id ] ; then
echo ERROR: bundle-id and activity-id arguments required
echo Aborting
exit 1
fi
# some debug output
echo launching $bundle_id instance $activity_id
[ -n $object_id ] echo with journal obj $object_id
[ -n $uri ] echo loading uri $uri
echo
# do not crash on dbus errors
export DBUS_FATAL_WARNINGS=0
if [ -n $object_id ] ; then
JOURNAL_DIR=$SUGAR_ACTIVITY_ROOT/data/Journal
mkdir -p $JOURNAL_DIR
temp_filename=$JOURNAL_DIR/temp.sb
title=`copy-from-journal -o $object_id -m $temp_filename | grep
title `
# title is something like this for files downloaded from server:
# title - File do_math_3.sb from
http://schoolserver/Scratch/do_math_3.sb.
# or like this if copied from USB flash drive:
# title - do_math_3
title=${title#*title - } #cut off description
echo title: $title
# workaround for copy-from-journal bug
Activity not getting registered in the journal
Hi, I have an activity written in c++. I have used catmoran's libsugarise library to sugarise my activity and create the activity bundle. It runs fine on the XO but when I run my activity it is not registered in the journal. I have attached a copy of my activity.info file and sugarise script which loads the libsugarise and calls my application. Can anyone figure out why the activity is not registered in the journal? Also I wanted to ask one more thing. The applciation needs the home path i.e. path to /home/olpc. But I cannot get this from the $HOME variable as this will not be where the activity is installed when run from the activity launcher. So I have hardcoded the path in my application to /home/olpc. How safe do you think it is. Is it reasonable to assume that the users home path will be this. Is there any other way I can get this path? Thanks jbsp72 activity.info Description: Binary data sugarize Description: Binary data ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: What keeps me going...
+1! Very well written with highly inspirational thoughts. -- Ankur On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 3:28 AM, Sameer Verma sve...@sfsu.edu wrote: So, a lot of people have been asking me this lately in the OLPC context. What keeps you going? Of course, this question has been asked by different people with different intentions. Some are genuinely surprised that I have so much free time, while others suspect a hidden treasure. So, I decided to shoot off this e-mail to the lists for two reasons. One, I am not sure which list is appropriate, and two, I think many of us do question the merits of this project from time to time, and I want to share my sentiments with you all. Feel free to delete if you don't like it. During my visit to India a long time friend asked me this question. What keeps you going with a project like this? He wanted to know where I got all this free time from. Well, the assumption is a bit off. A lot of the time I put into the project aligns with my profession as well. Sustainable IT, network infrastructure, software development, collaboration, etc. are all parts of my research stream. so is FOSS development, adoption and use. So, finding time isn't that much of a stretch. Its a two way street. I am able to bring these things into my classroom and into my research. Of course, without support from my family, this would be extremely difficult. For instance, when I am off, gallivanting in Jamaica and working on a pilot there, my wife has to cover for me and she does so with a lot of effort, but we think its all for a good cause. We hope some of this will make a difference in the lives of communities there. Others, such as some of my students, have asked me the same question but with a little wink wink glint in their eye. They think there is something ulterior or somehow I am getting paid or I am bucking the system (wonder where they got that idea from). Getting across the volunteer ethic is very hard. Either you get it or you don't. Of course, volunteer-ism is driven by many things including ego, fame, and little green laptops. It is also driven by a desire to make a difference in the system. Sometimes the system doesn't want that change, but we still push for it. But that's another e-mail. Then there are some of us who have an addictive desire to take things apart. You know who I'm taking about! Take apart and put back together things that most people would leave untouched. People who subscribe to Make magazine or own a soldering iron would know. Its a strange itch, but its an ethic that brings people together. Its hard to explain these things to people who've never opened a radio, or a watch. On the other hand, if you are the Maker type, you would instantly know. We were surprised at the courage of attendees at the December OLPC-SF meeting. They took their XOs apart and put them back together. Well, most of us did. Only Robert needed some help from a 7 year old attendee :-) (Sorry Robert. Couldn't resist!) I think its a lot of these reasons that keep us all together in this project and its offshoots, but one experience has captured my enthusiasm unlike any other. This was a trip to Khairat, India's first pilot site (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Khairat_school). I had seen pictures, and even videos and news clips of Khairat. But driving out there with the folks from Reliance (the pilot partner) was a turning point. Seeing five year olds handling their XOs with ease was just amazing. Seeing them document their lives and showing me photos via the journal suddenly made a lot of sense. All discussions of a lack of a file manager were moot at that point. Rahul and Manisha sure don't need a file manager to show me what they did! They could care less about /etc or /usr/local/ I wish I could get the journal on my Ubuntu Thinkpad laptop. They had documented a tight rope walker who visited Khairat. They had documented Gandhi's birthday (2nd Oct) and showed me the photos. They didn't care that Sugar was slow. After all, for them to know that Sugar is slow, they would have to know something faster! They love their XOs and it shows. Then there is Mr. Surve, the teacher at Khairat. With very little training, this man gets his gang going. He's built solar system animations in e-toys and precipitation cycle in Paint. He has made his own lesson plans in Write and is constantly yelling in Marathi (local language) Go to the neighborhood. Join the mesh. Who woulda thunk it? In the middle-of-nowhere-Khairat, a teacher is yelling a his kids to join the mesh. A draft version of 802.11s has made it that far! Of course Rahul and Manisha don't know that. And they don't need to, because we have a team of do-gooders who take care of all that. And that's where my respect and unconditional support for this group comes from. I've met very few of you in person. But, my sentiments for this group as a whole are always equated with the joy that is now in
Re: [Server-devel] ToDO: Write up Proxy Strategy
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 11:42 AM, Caroline Meeks carol...@solutiongrove.com wrote: rproxy - write down what needs to be done and how much. Caroline and others pointed out today at xocamp that the rproxy notes were never fully documented. There are some emails on this list about it - but nothing complete. I've now put it in the wiki http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Blueprints:rproxy - here's the initial version for discussion... Notes on an rproxy implenentation for the XS. We want to have an optional, easy to switch on rproxy setup on the XS. rproxy can replace or complement the main XS http proxy - if we have a stable, efficient, high quality http proxy on the XS, pairing it with rproxy would be a good idea. As long as we are using Squid, it's not such a good idea :-( =Rationale= rproxy is a proxy that expends HTTP 1.1 proxying and provides much better performance over very bandwidth constrained linkes. It requires an upstream rproxy to match the downstream rproxy. For deployments where the schools are connected to the internet with very limited uplinks, rproxy can be a huge win. Modern internet is made of moderately dynamic content --- the content is mostly static but un-cacheable due to rotating banners or latest news boxes on the side. Even when content changes, the template for the content is often 80% of the HTML downloaded. rproxy provides huge gains with such content. More about what rproxy is * http://rproxy.samba.org/ * http://ozlabs.org/~rusty/rproxy.html =How it would work= For a deployment with limited connectivity into the schools - setup a co-located rproxy server at the ISP - enable rproxy on the XSs deployed, pointing to the ISP Note: the rproxy server at the ISP must only accept requests from valid clients - either from a defined netblock or whitelisted IP addresses. An open rproxy is an open proxy! =Issues with rproxy= * The working version uses an old version of librsync - which may have odd bugs and is generally unsupported, untouched, unknown * There's a half-finished port to the new librsync. Martin Poole started it a while ago, and abandoned it. * Does not stream the content through - blocks until the content is fully fetched before delivery to requester. * Unknown performance and memory footprint when hit by many users concurrently * Needs packaging, init scripts, etc... * Unclear if it behaves reasonably well with ajax streamed requests - it may break or add problematic latencies, etc =TO DO= * Test and ensure it works with modern internet usage patterns. Gmail, youtube, etc... * package, configuration, init scripts... * Test under load, paired with a conventional http proxy - may need performance / memory trimming * Port to modern librsync * Make it work with streamed content (possibly the hardest task!) ... cheers, martin -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] ToDO: Write up Proxy Strategy
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Martin Langhoff martin.langh...@gmail.com wrote: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Blueprints:rproxy - and lest I forget - http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/7815 cheers, m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
[Server-devel] interest in new proxy
Hi, My name is Vivek Pai and I'm new to the list. Forgive me if I'm missing anything relating to this query. A long time ago, I visited OLPC to discuss HTTP proxy needs for the schools, and our research group at Princeton had a project that looked like it might be a good fit. In particular, it's a Web proxy that scales to large storage sizes without requiring large memory consumption. It can, for example, use a 1TB USB drive as a store, while requiring only a XO-class laptop to drive it. Is there interest in something like this for the XS server? We're also working on a WAN accelerator that uses this proxy, providing transparent compression of content, even for dynamic Web sites. The original ticket for this was https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6#comment:8 -Vivek ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] interest in new proxy
Vivek, This sounds very interesting. Could you provide us with more information? Regards, Reuben Vivek Pai wrote: Hi, My name is Vivek Pai and I'm new to the list. Forgive me if I'm missing anything relating to this query. A long time ago, I visited OLPC to discuss HTTP proxy needs for the schools, and our research group at Princeton had a project that looked like it might be a good fit. In particular, it's a Web proxy that scales to large storage sizes without requiring large memory consumption. It can, for example, use a 1TB USB drive as a store, while requiring only a XO-class laptop to drive it. Is there interest in something like this for the XS server? We're also working on a WAN accelerator that uses this proxy, providing transparent compression of content, even for dynamic Web sites. The original ticket for this was https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6#comment:8 -Vivek ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] interest in new proxy
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Vivek Pai vi...@cs.princeton.edu wrote: A long time ago, I visited OLPC to discuss HTTP proxy needs for the schools, and our research group at Princeton had a project that looked like it might be a good fit. Hi Vivek, is it your original hashcache or related to it? There was discussion a while ago of using hashcache - jg was very excited about it, and I was too. We're pretty disappointed with Squid's performance and memory usage. Is there interest in something like this for the XS server? Yes yes yes. It'd be fantastic. What is the licensing status? cheers, martin -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] interest in new proxy
Hi Reuben, The system is called HashCache, and it's a relatively recent development. We'd been corresponding with Jim Gettys and trying to get the license worked out with Eben Moglen. Jim knows the details, but it's basically a proxy built on a new storage engine that's optimized to reduce memory consumption. In its most minimal form, it uses no RAM for the object index, which is what allows us to do the 1TB disk / 256MB RAM configuration. Its performance in this configuration is comparable to Squid, since HashCache has a custom user-level filesystem. It doesn't compete on features with Squid, but it should be possible to integrate the necessary set of features. -Vivek Reuben K. Caron wrote: Vivek, This sounds very interesting. Could you provide us with more information? Regards, Reuben Vivek Pai wrote: Hi, My name is Vivek Pai and I'm new to the list. Forgive me if I'm missing anything relating to this query. A long time ago, I visited OLPC to discuss HTTP proxy needs for the schools, and our research group at Princeton had a project that looked like it might be a good fit. In particular, it's a Web proxy that scales to large storage sizes without requiring large memory consumption. It can, for example, use a 1TB USB drive as a store, while requiring only a XO-class laptop to drive it. Is there interest in something like this for the XS server? We're also working on a WAN accelerator that uses this proxy, providing transparent compression of content, even for dynamic Web sites. The original ticket for this was https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/6#comment:8 -Vivek ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Notes about XS on XO...
On Thu, 2009-01-08 at 19:05 -0500, Martin Langhoff wrote: OK lets backup a second, I'm thinking that the OS could be on a SD disk/NAND with an external USB harddrive holding most of the write intensive directories. thoughts? My plan is to use a high quality SD card, not NAND (jffs2 complexity, slow, small, etc). And the USB hd holding the _large_ directories. Some stuff in /var is somewhat write intensive but very small, so a lazy commit policy will be just the ticket -- I think all of /var on usb might be harder. Just a question, would we be needing a do-it-yourself explanation of the steps involved, or are we just going to distribute an image that you could write to a partition? Both? I have a XO using a 4gig SD card, started life out as xo-1-olpc-stream-8.2.1-devel_ext3.img, with the XS repos added, yum installing xs-pkgs, xs-config now... I've ran into some funny dep issues but brute forced my way round them. I have some notes around, will try to add them to the wiki at some point. I've excluded the kernel from being updated at this point, I'll try a newer kernel at some point later, just waiting for yum to finish and try rebooting this puppy. Woohoo reboot time... rats network is broken... Time to dig/fix, Jerry ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] interest in new proxy
Vivek - Jim Gettys passed on your information to me (he left OLPC last week) and I'd be happy to pick up the conversation with you. Thanks! - Ed Ed McNierney CTO / VP of Engineering One Laptop per Child e...@laptop.org +1 (978) 761-0049 On 1/13/09 9:32 PM, Vivek Pai vi...@cs.princeton.edu wrote: Martin Langhoff wrote: On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Vivek Pai vi...@cs.princeton.edu wrote: A long time ago, I visited OLPC to discuss HTTP proxy needs for the schools, and our research group at Princeton had a project that looked like it might be a good fit. Hi Vivek, is it your original hashcache or related to it? There was discussion a while ago of using hashcache - jg was very excited about it, and I was too. We're pretty disappointed with Squid's performance and memory usage. The proxy part is HashCache. The WAN accelerator doesn't have a name at the moment, but it's probably a few months away from beta. Is there interest in something like this for the XS server? Yes yes yes. It'd be fantastic. What is the licensing status? I think we'd reached agreement with Eben on something, but we're just waiting at this point. Assuming someone on your end tells him that you're interested in forging ahead, I guess he'll write up the necessary license. It was basically Affero GPL + patent license for the GPL version. -Vivek ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] interest in new proxy
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:32 PM, Vivek Pai vi...@cs.princeton.edu wrote: write up the necessary license. It was basically Affero GPL + patent license for the GPL version. That sounds like it'd be workable for us. Fantastic news! m -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
Re: [Server-devel] Notes about XS on XO...
On Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 9:31 PM, Jerry Vonau jvo...@shaw.ca wrote: Just a question, would we be needing a do-it-yourself explanation of the steps involved, or are we just going to distribute an image that you could write to a partition? Both? I'd say both ;-) I have a XO using a 4gig SD card, started life out as xo-1-olpc-stream-8.2.1-devel_ext3.img, with the XS repos added, yum installing xs-pkgs, xs-config now... I've ran into some funny dep issues but brute forced my way round them. I have some notes around, will try to add them to the wiki at some point. I've excluded the kernel from being updated at this point, I'll try a newer kernel at some point later, just waiting for yum to finish and try rebooting this puppy. Woohoo reboot time... rats network is broken... Cool. Another bit of good news is that I tackled JKatz and he confessed to having (probably) backported the fixes onto the F9 kernel. So maybe a plain XS install to SD may work too... cheers, martin -- martin.langh...@gmail.com mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect - ask interesting questions - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Martinlanghoff ___ Server-devel mailing list Server-devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/server-devel
