Re: [IAEP] [UKids] [Announcement] Sugarizer v0.4 is available

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

This is fantastic - well done!

I've been out of the OLPC/Sugar world for a while now, but just yesterday I
was extolling the virtues of Sugar at a meeting in the university where I
work. Our vice-chancellor has challenged us to come up with innovative
learning ideas, and I was using Sugar as an example of what can be achieved
through creative thinking. I'm going to point everyone to Sugarizer so that
they can try it out for themselves :)

Cheers,
Sridhar


On 21 May 2014 22:25, Lionel Laské  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
>
>
> I'm proud to announce the fourth version (0.4) of Sugarizer, a taste of
> Sugar for any device.
>
>
>
> http://sugarizer.org
>
>
>
> To remind you, Sugarizer reproduce main features of Sugar in
> HTML5/JavaScript. Sugarizer also expose these features to allow running in
> a browser Sugar Web activities wrote for Sugar 0.100+.
>
> Sugarizer is available from a browser or as an Android application.
>
>
>
> New in this version:
>
>- Three new activities:
>   - Tank Operation: a Tuxmath like activity, practice math facts in
>   an arcade game,
>   - TurtleJS: a TurtleArt like activity. A taste of TurtleArt for any
>   device !
>   - ChatPrototype: see below.
>- Sugar compatibility: Sugarizer could now be used as a developer
>platform for Sugar-Web activity. So, developers could now develop Sugar
>activities only with a browser and a file editor. Resulting activities will
>work without any change on Sugar 0.100+.
>- Improve Journal view: rename, delete and popup menu.
>- Server collaboration: Sugarizer Server now allow each user to
>publish local journal content to the Server. Just go to the journal view
>and access to your private or to the shared journal zone. Plus, if you keep
>in mind your user id (in settings/server), you could use the same settings
>(name, color, language, private storage) from different computers.
>- Presence API prototype: Sugarizer include a first prototype of
>Presence API and a Chat test activity. You could chat with all other users
>on the same server.
>- Server connectivity to Client: The Android Client has capacity to
>connect to a Sugarizer Server. Just go to Server settings: check the
>connected checkbox and set your user id. You've now capacity to start your
>work on your PC then update it on your tablet !
>- Improved Android experience: Lot of issues related to Android
>environment has been solved.
>- API to server features: all server features are exposed as REST/JSON
>interfaces. So, developers could easily access to all server contents from
>any client (including, why not, the real Sugar journal).
>
>
>
> Hope you'll enjoy it and you could say: "Yes, I want to Sugarize the
> world".
>
> Do not hesitate to fork and contribute.
>
>
>
>Lionel.
>
>
>
> P.S.: Thanks to Jorge (TurtleJS activity), Suraj (Presence and Chat
> prototype), Ignacio (Spanish translation) for their contribution to this
> version.
>
> P.P.S.: For a visual demonstration of Sugarizer and this new version, you
> could see my talk at SugarCamp Paris #3 here:
> http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1rvdma_sugarcamp-3-sugarizer-what-if-sugar-could-be-on-every-device_school
>
> --
> Unsung Heroes of OLPC, interviewed live @ http://unleashkids.org !
> ---
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> "Unleash Kids" group.
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>
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[IAEP] Moving on

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Friends,

You may already have heard the news, but I wanted to take a moment to
let you know that I have just concluded my tenure as Engineering
Manager at One Laptop per Child Australia.

It's been a rewarding three and a half years. I joined the
organisation as its first technical resource and established the
Engineering Department. We've created some innovative solutions, and
most importantly it has all been tied closely into a holistic
educational solution. I'm pleased to say that we've made a difference
to the lives of thousands of children.

This was not a proprietary effort - far from it. The community has
been the backbone of everything we have achieved, and I owe a debt of
gratitude to you all.

Walter Bender will be taking over many of my responsibilities, so our
community roots will certainly continue.

I'm not sure what adventure lies next for me, but I hope to be able to
make a positive contribution to the world in whatever I do. I'll be
sticking around on the lists as a lurker.

My srid...@laptop.org.au address will likely stop working in the near
future, but you can continue to reach me personally:

  e-mail: srid...@dhanapalan.com
  LinkedIn: http://au.linkedin.com/in/sridhard


All the best,
Sridhar
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[IAEP] Arduino Esplora

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

This might be useful from an educational perspective:

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardEsplora

It looks similar to a MaKey MaKey in its simplicity. Everything else
I've seen is far too complex for most teachers and kids.
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Re: [IAEP] gathering use cases

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 3 November 2012 07:46, Holt  wrote:
> Thanks much Sameer.  Am including support-g...@laptop.org to make sure we
> gather microdeployment and support volunteer feedback too.
>
> While our XS Community Edition experiment ain't quite ready for
> showtime/download yet, its white paper & code repository are here:
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Holt/XS_Community_Edition

The white paper that Adam is referring to can be found at
https://docs.google.com/a/dhanapalan.com/document/pub?id=1dnhU2F6EntepVXTgN8QpkME8fZVUuPjcCoMUfAVKbcc

I am the primary author, but it was written by canvassing feedback and
opinions from schools and XS community members (including Jerry Vonau,
George Hunt, Adam Holt and many others). The paper discusses several
use cases and design goals, and outlines the underlying principles
behind how we do things in OLPC Australia.

There is some miscommunication being spread around that I'd like to
clear up. Firstly, this is not a 'secret' project. The white paper
explains our mission, and the code repo and issues trackers are open.
Secondly, the intent is to create a flexible framework that can be
adapted to suit local needs. This is *not*, as some keep asserting, a
project to have the XS work only on the XO. The community XS will work
on any x86 or ARM based hardware that works with Fedora. The white
paper explains this in depth.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Scratch released under GPL 2.0

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 29 March 2012 09:25, Bernie Innocenti  wrote:
> Wonderful news from our friends at the Media Lab:
>
>  Forwarded Message 
> From: Sayamindu Dasgupta 
> To: Bernie Innocenti 
> Subject: Scratch released under GPL 2.0
> Date: Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:35:16 -0400
>
> FYI: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch_1.4_Source_GPL


This is great. Does this mean that future versions will also be GPL?

Is there any further news on the Scratch 2.0 plans to move to the
non-Free Adobe Flash platform?

http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Scratch_2.0



Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
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Re: [IAEP] [OLPC-AU] [Sugar-devel] Browse is old

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 13 March 2012 07:15, Mikus Grinbergs  wrote:
> I don't use it day-to-day, but for more than two years now I've been
> installing (via 'rpm') the "midori" browser in all the XO-1 builds that have
> ever been made available.  My intent has been to have at least one (not
> counting "Surf") webkit-based browser for comparison purposes.
>
> Depending upon the base-build content, sometimes additional dependencies
> (packages) needed to be installed to let "midori" run -- but I've always had
> this non-Gecko browser available on my XO systems.

Do you know where I can get binaries for this that will work on
F14-based XO builds?

Thanks,
Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
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One Laptop per Child Australia
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Re: [IAEP] Browse is old

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 3 March 2012 23:52, Sridhar Dhanapalan  wrote:
> Browse is old and not useful for a lot of newer content. Our
> communities are creating content in HTML5, an effort that we want to
> encourage.
>
> However, Browse is based on the Gecko in engine in Firefox 3.6, which
> is far behind the times. I know that is is being ported to WebKit [1]
> as part of the GTK+3 transition. However, it'll be at least a year
> before we roll out a GTK+3 version of Sugar in our schools. What can
> we do in the interim?
>
> We can load a different Web browser, especially since now since saved
> files can be shared with the journal via the Documents/ directory [3].
>  The best I've found is an Opera wrapper from Flavio [2]. It scores
> much higher than Browse for HTML5 compliance [4], but nowhere near as
> much as Firefox 10 or Chromium 17. Also, Opera is proprietary
> software.
>
> Sridhar
>
>
> [1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/WebKit
> [2] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4503
> [3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.94/Notes#Easier_file_exchange..
> [4] http://html5test.com/


Bernie raised an interesting idea. Would it be reasonable to backport
the WebKit Browse to the OLPC OS 11.3? We could statically link the
dependencies in the bundle.

Thanks,
Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
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[IAEP] Bulletin Boards

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

We have recently started work on a new activity, which we called
Noteboard [1]. I have since discovered that there is a very similar
concept mentioned in the Sugar HIG, Bulletin Boards [2].

Is this idea implemented anywhere? I don't want us duplicating effort.

If it doesn't exist, does anyone have any advice on how we can approach this?

Thanks,
Sridhar


[1] https://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/634
[2] 
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Human_Interface_Guidelines/The_Laptop_Experience/Bulletin_Boards



Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
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[IAEP] Browse is old

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Browse is old and not useful for a lot of newer content. Our
communities are creating content in HTML5, an effort that we want to
encourage.

However, Browse is based on the Gecko in engine in Firefox 3.6, which
is far behind the times. I know that is is being ported to WebKit [1]
as part of the GTK+3 transition. However, it'll be at least a year
before we roll out a GTK+3 version of Sugar in our schools. What can
we do in the interim?

We can load a different Web browser, especially since now since saved
files can be shared with the journal via the Documents/ directory [3].
 The best I've found is an Opera wrapper from Flavio [2]. It scores
much higher than Browse for HTML5 compliance [4], but nowhere near as
much as Firefox 10 or Chromium 17. Also, Opera is proprietary
software.

Sridhar


[1] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/WebKit
[2] http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4503
[3] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.94/Notes#Easier_file_exchange..
[4] http://html5test.com/


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au
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[IAEP] Fwd: OLPC Australia - Education Newsletter Edition 8

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Edition 8 of the OLPC Australia Education Newsletter is out.

To subscribe, send an e-mail to education-newsletter+subscr...@laptop.org.au



-- Forwarded message --
From: One Laptop per Child Australia 
Date: 21 February 2012 17:14
Subject: OLPC Australia - Education Newsletter Edition 8
To: education-newslet...@laptop.org.au


Dear Educators,



Please follow this link to access Edition 8 of the Education Newsletter
http://edu.laptop.org.au/sites/default/files/education_newsletter_ed_8_february_2012.pdf.


Previous editions can also be found here.



In this edition, we announce the details of the *Learning@hand *conference
held in Cairns on the 29th-30th April, 2012.

We also provide some simple ideas you can use to include the XOs in your
teaching program and a spotlight on our online *Learner Manual*.



Don’t forget to be a part of our Yammer  network to
keep up with the talk around OLPC Australia.



As always we encourage you to share the newsletter with your colleagues. If
you’d like to offer some feedback or suggestions please feel free to drop
us an email at educat...@laptop.org.au.



Kind regards,



*The OLPC Team*

*One Laptop per Child Australia*

*P: + 61 2 9378 3437*

*F: +61 2 9475 4451*

*E: **educat...@laptop.org.au*

*A: G.P.O. Box 731*

* Sydney, NSW 2001*

*W: **www.laptop.org.au ** *



[image: Description: New OLPC Logo2 TN]



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[IAEP] Fwd: OLPC Australia - Education Newsletter Edition 7

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

-- Forwarded message --
From: One Laptop per Child Australia 
Date: 7 February 2012 16:41
Subject: OLPC Australia - Education Newsletter Edition 7
To: education-newslet...@laptop.org.au


Dear Educators,



Happy New Year and welcome back to school!



Please follow this link to access Edition 7 of the Education Newsletter
http://edu.laptop.org.au/children/education-newsletter. Previous editions
can also be found here.



In this edition, we are pleased to provide some tips for working with
Turtle Art and Musicpainter. The Tech Tip will offer advice on preparing
inherited XOs for your new students.



Colette Williams from Collinsville State School in Queensland shares her
experiences in the classroom, describing how the shared learning experience
is benefiting the Collinsville students, community and teachers.



The next newsletter will feature information about the upcoming
Learning@Hand  conference held in Cairns
on the 29th-30th April, 2012.



One Laptop per Child will feature at Learning@Hand - speak to your
Principal about attending.



As always we encourage you to share the newsletter with your colleagues. If
you’d like to offer some feedback or suggestions please feel free to drop
us an email at educat...@laptop.org.au.



Kind regards,



*The OLPC Team*

*One Laptop per Child Australia*

*P: + 61 2 9378 3437*

*F: +61 2 9475 4451*

*E: **educat...@laptop.org.au*

*A: G.P.O. Box 731*

* Sydney, NSW 2001*

*W: **www.laptop.org.au ** *



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[IAEP] OLPC Australia education programme

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Hello everyone,

You may be interested in a review I have written of the OLPC Australia
education programme:

http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2012/02/01/creating-an-education-programme/

It contains the video of a talk I gave at the linux.conf.au conference
in January, and a more detailed explanation of that talk.

Some of the key points:

  * We have a com­pre­hens­ive edu­ca­tion pro­gramme that highly
val­ues teacher empower­ment and com­munity engagement, with a focus
on building sustainability.
  * The invest­ment to provide a con­nec­ted learn­ing device to every
one of the 300 000 chil­dren in remote Aus­tralia is less than 0.1% of
the annual edu­ca­tion and con­nectiv­ity budgets.
  * For low socio-​​economic status schools, the cost is only $80 AUD per child.
  * Our pro­gramme is avail­able to any school in Aus­tralia, for $380
AUD per child.
  * Our programme is schools-centric, with a strong focus on the teacher.
  * A teacher must undergo training and earn a certification to
qualify to receive XOs for their class.
  * Training is conducted online, and hence scales very well.
  * We have an online community to provide peer-driven support,
assisted by OLPC Australia personnel.
  * Technology development and deployment is guided by the principle
that it must be manageable by non-technical personnel.
  * Our technology platform is open and not locked-down, providing
maximum opportunity for children to learn and empowering
schools/communities to own the deployment for themselves.
  * We are seeing real educational results from our efforts, and are
engaged in longitudinal and detailed evaluation.
  * Our supporters include corporations and members of parliament at
state and federal levels, but we can always use more help :)

Please have a read if you are interested, and contact us if you would
like to take part in our mission.

We will be releasing more information on this educational programme in
the coming months.


Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
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Re: [IAEP] [support-gang] Fixing activities documentation for the new UI

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Thanks Pablo.

We are tackling this in two stages:

  1. engaging with technical writers to solve our immediate,
time-critical need for documentation to match our OS release
  2. developing a longer-term strategy to better sync with community

We'll announce more details as they develop.

Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia


On 22 January 2012 01:53, Pablo Flores  wrote:
> Making a documentation sprint in April in Boston sounds good. However, it
> wouldn't solve most of OLPC-Australia problem, as they want to start
> training teachers for the new versions in March.
>
> I wonder if some people from Australia, New Zeland and other Pacific
> countries may be interested in doing a documentation sprint before that...
>
> Saludos,
> Pablo Flores
>
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:35 PM, Adam Holt  wrote:
>>
>> Now I always scheduled sprints/summits on civic/religious long weeks/wkds
>> in the past so the max peop could sneak out of their day jobs, wouldn't a
>> Passover Sprint "open to all" per the Jewish tradition "All who are hungry,
>> come and eat" just be perfect?
>>
>> In any case Nancie don't worry we won't make you cook or host...or will
>> we, hah ;)
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/20/2012 7:15 PM, Nancie Severs wrote:
>>
>> Hi Adam, and all,
>> Just a heads up: This year Passover is April 6 (seder evening) and April 7
>> is the first day. Easter Sunday is April 8. That's not a good weekend Adam.
>> The weekend before or after look ok though.
>> Nancie:)
>>
>> Nancie Severs OLPC Support Volunteer
>> 
>> From: George Hunt 
>> To: "Community Support Volunteers -- who help respond to "help AT
>> laptop.org"" 
>> Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 1:09 PM
>> Subject: Re: [support-gang] [IAEP] Fixing activities documentation for the
>> new UI
>>
>> Two thoughts,
>>
>> If the get together was a week earlier, I could attend.
>>
>> For manipulating screen shots, the xophoto activity I did might be useful
>> (see http://georgejhunt.com/olpc/xophoto/xophoto.html). It's a little
>> clunky, and didn't make it out of the sugarlabs sandbox.
>>
>> The download is available at
>> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4377.
>>
>> And early documentation is at http://xophoto.wordpress.com/
>>
>> Maybe, after being away from it for a year, I'll see ways to make xophoto
>> more user friendly, and useful for the new tablet.
>>
>> George
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 8:02 AM, Holt  wrote:
>>
>> Clustering a book sprint around (and including) the wkd of Apr 7/8 when
>> several including myself, Christoph, Nancie S. etc should be in Boston,
>> might make a ton of sense?
>>
>> But others should speak up if they have better ideas!
>>
>> As I'm spending a lot of time in Haiti these days and lost track of the
>> rich world's schedules, but will happily join if Caryl/Christoph/Pablo/ALL
>> driving forward enthusiasm to make this real =)
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/16/2012 6:44 AM, adam wrote:
>>
>> hi Adam
>>
>>
>>
>> On 01/16/2012 12:32 PM, Holt wrote:
>>
>> Caryl Bigenho, Christoph Derndorfer, I & others have been laying
>> groundwork since Oct/SF but as we all know this is Hell^h^h^h^hGod's
>> thankless work :)
>>
>>
>> Can we bring this together with a focused doc event? a 5 dayer to complete
>> the work and move it on to a new level?
>>
>> adam
>>
>>
>>
>> Everyone who can pitch in taking screenshots of critical/latest
>> Activities is an absolute hero, particularly for these Activities
>> included in Release 11.3.0?
>>
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Activities/G1G1/11.3
>>
>> Update our manual-refresh's wiki here please if so, no matter how you
>> choose to help!
>>
>> http://j.mp/xomanual
>>
>> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_SanFranciscoBayArea/OLPCSF_Community_Summit_2011/Help_Activity_Refresh
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/16/2012 6:10 AM, adam wrote:
>>
>> hi
>>
>> I would like to propose a doc summit for sugar/olpc. Fm can facilitate
>> a series of sprints to get everything up to date. However we would
>> need to work together to raise the funds to make it happen. I am happy
>> to put work into this from our side (FM) - who can take the lead from
>> Sugars side?
>>
>> adam
>>
>> On 01

Re: [IAEP] [x-post] GNU Project renews focus on free software in education

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Brilliant!

What can we do to have Sugar more formally recognised by the FSF? I
think it should be their desktop of choice for primary school
education.

Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Engineering Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia



On 31 January 2012 23:28, Anish Mangal  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Just received a message on the fsf-info list about FSF relaunching the
> GNU education project:
>
> Links:
> [1] http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-education-website-relaunch
> [blog post]
> [2] http://www.gnu.org/education/ [GNU Education website]
>
> --
> Anish
>
>
> * * *
>
>
> BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Monday, January 30, 2012 -- The GNU
> Project today announced the relaunch of its worldwide volunteer-led
> effort to bring free software to educational institutions of all
> levels. The new effort is based at http://www.gnu.org/education.
>
> The newly formed GNU Education Team is being led by Dora Scilipoti, an
> Italian free software activist and teacher. Under her leadership, the
> Team has developed a list of specific goals to guide their work:
>
>
> Present cases of educational institutions around the world who are
> successfully using and teaching free software.
>
> Show examples of how free programs are being used by educational
> institutions to improve the learning and teaching processes.
>
> Publish articles on the various aspects involved in the use of free
> software by educational institutions.
>
> Maintain a dialogue with teachers, students and administrators of
> educational institutions to listen to their difficulties and provide
> support.
>
> Keep in contact with other groups around the world committed to the
> promotion of free software in education.
>
> GNU and its host organization, the Free Software Foundation (FSF),
> emphasize that free software principles are a prerequisite for any
> educational environment that uses computers:
>
> Educational institutions of all levels should use and teach free
> software because it is the only software that allows them to
> accomplish their essential missions: to disseminate human knowledge
> and to prepare students to be good members of their community. The
> source code and the methods of free software are part of human
> knowledge. On the contrary, proprietary software is secret, restricted
> knowledge, which is the opposite of the mission of educational
> institutions. Free software supports education, proprietary software
> forbids education.
>
> In an article at
> http://fsf.org/blogs/community/gnu-education-website-relaunch,
> Scilipoti adds insights about the project's organizing philosophy,
> current contributors, and progress so far. Of her basic motivation for
> being involved, she says, "As a free software advocate and a teacher,
> I always felt that the GNU Project needed to address the subject
> specifically and in depth, for it is in the education field that its
> ethical principles find the most fertile ground for achieving the goal
> of building a better society."
>
> In her article, Scilipoti also highlights some of the free software
> success stories from around the world, especially Kerala, India, where
> the government has migrated over 2,600 of its public schools to free
> software.
>
> While the Education Team has already compiled a collection of useful
> materials, they are also looking for more volunteer contributors.
> People who want to help, or who have information about instructive
> examples of existing use of free software in schools, should contact
> educat...@gnu.org.
>
> "Education really is one of the most fundamental areas we need to
> focus on to achieve real social change," said Free Software Foundation
> executive director John Sullivan. "We need to be acknowledging and
> assisting schools that are doing the right thing, and helping those
> who aren't yet on board understand why those giveaway Microsoft
> Office, iPad, and Kindle deals aren't so great for classrooms after
> all. We're very thankful to all of the Team members for stepping up to
> meet this challenge. I hope others will be inspired by their work and
> join the effort."
>
> The Education Team has also been working closely with GNU's
> Translation Team to make the new materials available in as many
> languages as possible. People interested in helping with the
> translation component of the project should see the information at
> http://www.gnu.org/server/standards/README.translations.html.
>
> About the Free Software Foundation
>
> The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to
> promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and
> redistribute computer programs.

Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] 3 Questions From A New Sugar User Age 21

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 27 January 2012 08:55, Thomas C Gilliard  wrote:
>
>
> On 01/26/2012 01:40 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
>>
>> On 25 January 2012 03:13, Thomas C Gilliard
>>  wrote:
>>>
>>> On 01/24/2012 07:49 AM, Ma Xiaojun wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 1. Can I install SoaS to hard disk?
>>>
>>>
>>> enter "liveinst" from the sugar-terminal
>>
>> Is there a reason why this isn't exposed in the GUI? Maybe it can be a
>> CP applet?
>>
>> I think this is a valuable feature.
>>
>
> Take a look at this new tutorial:
>
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit/sck/liveinst
>
> It is listed here also along with some other tutorials:
>
> http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_Creation_Kit#F16_Sugar_install_from_a_booted_Live_CD.2FUSB_with_liveinst

Thanks.

The problem, however, is that this is not easily discoverable. A
newcomer shouldn't have to go searching through the wiki to find a way
to install SoaS. And using the terminal is not exactly a friendly
introduction to the platform :S

Cheers,
Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Sugar UI font

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 25 January 2012 23:59, Sridhar Dhanapalan  wrote:
> The typeface that comes closest to our needs is Andika [1]. It has a
> 'bowl a' (a good thing) but it also has a hooked 9 (a bad thing). It
> also isn't very legible at small sizes.
>
> I'm surprised that no fonts that meet our criteria appear to exist.
> How are the characters "a" and "9" taught in schools in other
> countries?
>
>
> [1] http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=Andika


Just a thought - how feasible would it be to take an existing
open-licensed font (there are lots of good ones) and substitute in an
"a" and "9" that are more consistent with Australian classroom
learning? I think that means that we'd only have to design two glyphs,
making them look consistent with the others.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Sugar UI font

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 25 January 2012 23:17, Chris Leonard  wrote:
>
> Just a thought I would like to throw into the mix while you are still
> in the investigation phase.  You might want adding a selection
> criteria that the font should be capable of representing of any
> unusual characters that may have been introduced in the orthography of
> aboriginal languages.
>
> A common pattern is that native languages (frequently oral without
> written forms) has a wriiten form developed during the colonial period
> (often by missionaries seeking to translate the Bible).  This
> sometimes leads to an alphabet and orthography that is drawn from the
> (typically Latin) alphabet of the colonizing culture.  However, in
> order to represent certain sounds unique to the indigenous language,
> additional characters are introduced.  By way of example, a number of
> indigenous languages of Mexico introduce a "crossed I" (ɨ) into the
> alphabet to represent a particular variation of the "i" sound.  I know
> nothing of the orthography of Australian native languages and so this
> may not end up being a concern, but it should be taken into
> consideration.
>
> If you want a font standard that will continue to serve Australia when
> indigenous language localization becomes an element of your program
> (as it hopefully will someday)  you should make sure that you do not
> lock into an option that will limit your abilities to represent
> aboriginal languages in future.
>
> Warmest Regards.
>
> cjl

Thanks for that advice!

I was casually keeping in mind the special characters required for the
Yolngu Matha language, spoken by the people of north-east Arnhem Land,
but you make a good point that indigenous character sets should be
taken more seriously. Some needed characters are available in major
fonts, but not knowing all languages I cannot know for sure if they
are all available.

The typeface that comes closest to our needs is Andika [1]. It has a
'bowl a' (a good thing) but it also has a hooked 9 (a bad thing). It
also isn't very legible at small sizes.

I'm surprised that no fonts that meet our criteria appear to exist.
How are the characters "a" and "9" taught in schools in other
countries?


[1] http://scripts.sil.org/cms/scripts/page.php?item_id=Andika
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Re: [IAEP] Sugar UI font

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Our first thought was to use one of the Australian schools handwriting
fonts [1]. We're currently experimenting with the Queensland Compact
Bold font [2], as it is more legible than the others. However, any
cursive font is less readable on a screen. Feedback so far has been
primarily negative.

What I think we need is a legible sans-serif font.

A lot of the freeware fonts out there are of low quality, incomplete
and not unicode compliant.


[1] http://www.schoolfonts.com.au/
[2] http://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/996



On 25 January 2012 16:51, Ian Cunningham  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> NT DET uses Victorian Modern Cursive
>
> http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/english/handwriting.htm
>
> Cheers
>
>
> Ian
>
> -Original Message-
> From: iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org 
> [mailto:iaep-boun...@lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Sridhar Dhanapalan
> Sent: Wednesday, 25 January 2012 3:13 PM
> To: iaep
> Subject: [IAEP] Sugar UI font
>
> I'm trying to find a font to use for the Sugar UI that has characters formed 
> in the way they are taught in Australian schools (and probably in other 
> countries too). The default Sans Serif font (and most fonts I've seen) have 
> "a" and "9" characters with hooks. I'm after a font with a uses a "bowl a" 
> and "9" with a vertical (not curved/hooked) stem.
>
> I've tried to explain this (with pictures) at
> http://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/1035
>
> Thanks,
> Sridhar
>
>
> Sridhar Dhanapalan
> Engineering Manager
> One Laptop per Child Australia
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[IAEP] Sugar UI font

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

I'm trying to find a font to use for the Sugar UI that has characters
formed in the way they are taught in Australian schools (and probably
in other countries too). The default Sans Serif font (and most fonts
I've seen) have "a" and "9" characters with hooks. I'm after a font
with a uses a "bowl a" and "9" with a vertical (not curved/hooked)
stem.

I've tried to explain this (with pictures) at
http://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/1035

Thanks,
Sridhar


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Re: [IAEP] Fixing activities documentation for the new UI

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 14 January 2012 07:02, Walter Bender  wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 13, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Pablo Flores  wrote:
>> Yesterday we discussed with Sridhar Dhanapalan and other OLPC-Australia team
>> people the impact of updating the Sugar version on their deployment. One of
>> the unforeseen impacts comes to the documentation they have made for
>> training their teachers, as it has plenty of screenshots and videos that got
>> outdated because of all the UI changes made recently.  This will bring an
>> important amount of work for updating...
>>
>> One of the things that could be very helpful for them would be having the
>> floss manuals updated. I took a look at the manuals of "classic" activities
>> and they weren't updated. It would be great if some of the contributors who
>> worked on those manuals could lend a hand for having them updated.
>>
>> Looking further, I think there should be some way for keeping the activities
>> documentation updated, or at least having a single place to see for each
>> activity how much updated its documentation is. Looking for ideas for having
>> this done.
>>
>> Would it make sense including documentation updating in the upstreaming
>> process somehow?
>
> Perhaps a coincidence? I was corresponding with Adam this morning
> about the possibility of organizing a sprint to update the Sugar
> manuals. I was going to put out a call for a champion on the Sugar
> side to help organize it. Any takers?
>
> -walter

The discussion with Pablo was on the same topic, so not just a coincidence.

Our OS (based on Dextrose 3) is mostly Sugar 0.94 as included in OLPC
OS 11.3.1. We've made some changes, but nothing too drastic. Updated
documentation on Sugar 0.94 and its activities would take us most of
the way there.

Sridhar


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Re: [IAEP] Flash - Sugar - HTML5 and Circle-The-Cat

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

2011/12/9 Carlos Rabassa :
> I asked,  how would you write an application to allow any user to use it by
> clicking on a link?  And I gave him a link to the example of the cat.
>
> HTML5 was the answer.
>
> Then I asked,  what about Flash?
>
> The answer was that it can be used but is not what he would recommend to use
> today because Flash,  after having been great,  is now on the way out.
>
> Flash is owned by Adobe and there are rumors they will not support it any
> longer.  Adobe came up with Adobe Air.   Most new applications are required
> to work with smart phones and tablets;  this is the big force pushing Flash
> out and HTML5 in.
>
> He said "free" when referring to HTML5.  I don´t know if he meant it
> qualifies as free software.

HTML5 is a set of free and open standards. Yes, you can safely build
free software applications using HTML5.

I have long been arguing that we should be using HTML5 more in Sugar,
and even funded some development towards making it happen [1]. Sugar
Labs are working to make this possible [2].


Sridhar


[1] https://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/742
[2] http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Features/WebKit



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Re: [IAEP] Where may developers meet educators? / ¿Donde pueden los desarrolladores encontrar a los educadores?

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

2011/11/29 Carlos Rabassa :
> Versión en Español sigue al texto Inglés
>
> I changed the Subject from /
> Cambié el tema desde
>  Fwd: [IAEP] Contemplating Your SLOBS Vote.
>
> Sridhar,
>
> I find your opinion very much interesting.
>
> However,  we are not discussing a universal scientific problem.
>
> I have no doubts your comments apply to some of the teachers you know;  mine
> apply to the teachers I know,  a different group,  probably far away from
> yours.
>
> We are discussing the individual reasons why a large number of teachers,  in
> different locations all over the world,  are not communicating with the
> creators and developers of applications intended for them.
>
> Walter initiated this discussion,  asking for help to find a proper venue
> for developers and educators to meet.
>
> Teachers are good writers by trade and training.
>
> Venues such as Facebook,  Yammer and SalesForce,  are suitable to consult on
> a specific problem,  reaching many individuals who might be able to answer,
>  offering an almost immediate answer.
>
> Using a system like this,  implies knowing how to explain the problem
> clearly in a language understood by others in the group.  It also frequently
> tends to create many immediate answers from people with lots of good will
> and good intentions but who offer answers that confuse the person with the
> original problem more than helping.

It doesn't have to work that way.

Mailing lists can facilitate lengthy, thoughtful conversation.
However, that risks the tl;dr [1] problem. Our teachers are typically
very time-poor and won't bother reading long posts.

Facebook and similar media are typically best for short and sharp
communications. Yammer isn't limited to 140 characters like Twitter,
so detailed conversation is indeed possible. We've been using Yammer
to manage support requests, which has turned out quite well.

There was another instance on Yammer a few months ago where a teacher
started by asking for a Powerpoint equivalent for Sugar. After a few
messages back-and-forth, Walter was able to solve that teacher's
problem in a much better way by creating a plug-in for Turtle Art.
This is a fantastic example of what direct communications between
teacher and developers can achieve. Yammer presents a platform for
this that everyone is familiar with.


Sridhar


[1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tl%3Bdr


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Re: [IAEP] Sugar Digest 2011-12-01

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 2 December 2011 04:24, Carlos Rabassa  wrote:
> Walter,
>  thanks for taking a whole point of your report to discuss a subject I
> brought up.
> Unfortunately my point or its further clarification were not clear enough.
>  You are still not getting it right.
> The only reason I offered a link to the game "Circle-the-Cat" was to offer
> an example of an easy to use application.
> What I meant by that is that you are already using it after a single clic on
> the link I sent.
> No downloading or installation is required.  It works with any computer
> connected to internet (or to a school server??),  using any operating
> system.

Not true!

It requires an Internet connection to load the page. Maybe it can be
copied to be used offline? I haven't looked.

It requires Adobe Flash to operate. That means it won't work on many
computers and devices. Considering that Adobe are discontinuing
support for mobile Flash, the number of compatible devices will only
shrink. I haven't checked whether it works in Gnash.


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Re: [IAEP] Contemplating Your SLOBS Vote

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 28 November 2011 08:47, Carlos Rabassa  wrote:
> Walter,
> The networking site you ask for,  seems to be the IAEP list,  located at
> http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep

Mailing lists are too cumbersome for most of our teachers. We've been
finding that Yammer works better for non-technical people. Its
Facebook-like interface feels less threatening, and there are lots of
other features that a mailing list cannot provide.

Sridhar
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[IAEP] Overview of the OLPC Australia programme

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Here's a talk I gave last week at the Open Source Developers'
Conference in Canberra, Australia. It summarises the OLPC Australia
educational programme, and discusses how the OLPC technology fits into
it.

http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/11/27/olpc-australia-talk-at-osdc-2011/


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Re: [IAEP] OLPC Australia social networking site for teachers [WAS: Re: Contemplating Your SLOBS Vote]

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 22 November 2011 14:52, Tabitha Roder  wrote:
> you can put me on your yammer network, no promises that I can do too much as
> still learning what is possible with a baby

Invitation sent :)

Feel free to spread the word about this. We welcome anyone who can
participate constructively with Australian teachers.

That also includes developers who are interested in creating/improving
activities to suit the needs of the Australian curriculum. We have a
group of developers and teachers in Yammer who like to develop and try
new things: https://www.yammer.com/australianxoteachers/groups/xolabs

Sridhar
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[IAEP] OLPC Australia social networking site for teachers [WAS: Re: Contemplating Your SLOBS Vote]

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 22 November 2011 14:34, Sridhar Dhanapalan  wrote:
> On 19 November 2011 00:10, Walter Bender  wrote:
>> (1) In Australia, the teachers use a social-networking site called
>> Yammer. Developers know to go to Yammer to communicate directly with
>> the teachers. Is there a social-networking site in your country where
>> the teachers gather? If so, we could hang out with them there. (I've
>> asked this question many times in the past and never gotten an answer.
>> Perhaps you or Carlos could investigate?)
>
> Yammer is working out really well for us, and we are tying it into our
> programme more tightly.
>
> We're currently putting together a certification programme for
> teachers. One of these certifications, the XO-cert [1], is a
> pre-requisite for a teacher to receive XOs for their class. In ways
> like this, we ensure that teachers are properly prepared on how they
> can use Sugar in their classroom before they can commence.
>
> Joining our Yammer network [2] is mandatory for teachers taking part
> in the courses [3]. Just as Sugar promotes collaboration amongst
> children, we want to do the same with Yammer for teachers. We provide
> rewards to teachers who are prolific posters on Yammer.
>
> Sridhar
>
>
> [1] http://edu.laptop.org.au/laptop/xo-cert-course
> [2] https://www.yammer.com/australianxoteachers/
> [3] http://laptop.moodle.com.au/

If you are interested in joining our Yammer network (link [2] above),
please let me know and I can send you an invitation to join.

Please respect that we are trying to keep the discussion focused on
user Sugar/XOs in an Australian educational context.

Regards,
Sridhar


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Re: [IAEP] Contemplating Your SLOBS Vote

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 19 November 2011 00:10, Walter Bender  wrote:
> (1) In Australia, the teachers use a social-networking site called
> Yammer. Developers know to go to Yammer to communicate directly with
> the teachers. Is there a social-networking site in your country where
> the teachers gather? If so, we could hang out with them there. (I've
> asked this question many times in the past and never gotten an answer.
> Perhaps you or Carlos could investigate?)

Yammer is working out really well for us, and we are tying it into our
programme more tightly.

We're currently putting together a certification programme for
teachers. One of these certifications, the XO-cert [1], is a
pre-requisite for a teacher to receive XOs for their class. In ways
like this, we ensure that teachers are properly prepared on how they
can use Sugar in their classroom before they can commence.

Joining our Yammer network [2] is mandatory for teachers taking part
in the courses [3]. Just as Sugar promotes collaboration amongst
children, we want to do the same with Yammer for teachers. We provide
rewards to teachers who are prolific posters on Yammer.

Sridhar


[1] http://edu.laptop.org.au/laptop/xo-cert-course
[2] https://www.yammer.com/australianxoteachers/
[3] http://laptop.moodle.com.au/


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Re: [IAEP] Questions to SLOB candidates

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 8 November 2011 00:04, Christoph Derndorfer
 wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Sascha, you make an excellent point here, I was thinking along the same
> lines when I re-read the various candidate statements this morning.
>
> Personally I'd also be interested in taking this one step further and
> creating a lively debate. Two ideas I've been thinking about are:
>
> (a) An IRC discussion with all the candidates next Tuesday or Wednesday
> before the election starts. This would give all Sugar Labs members a chance
> to directly interact with the candidates by asking questions. Additionally
> it could lead to some interesting discussions among the candidates whereas I
> fear that discussions here on the list will be more unidirectional (e.g.
> with the candidates simply answering the questions Sascha mentions below but
> not commenting on each other's answers and ideas).
> (b) Organizing a Skype, Gtalk, or Google+ Hangout session with the same
> purpose. While text-based communication has some advantages (e.g. it's easy
> to search, reference, etc.) I personally really like hearing people's voices
> and real-time reactions to discussions and arguments.
>
> For all these things we could use a wiki page or even something like Google
> Moderator (http://moderator.appspot.com/) to collect questions from the
> community in advance.
>
> Thoughts anyone?
>
> Cheers,
> Christoph

Considering that I'm a candidate, I don't want to interfere in the
process. However, I think this is a good idea in principle. I won't be
available next week (I'll be at the OSDC conference in Canberra [1]),
but I'm happy to participate otherwise.

Sridhar


[1] http://osdc.com.au/schedule/#australiastoughes
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[IAEP] Candidacy for Sugar Labs Oversight Board elections

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

I'd like to announce my candidacy for the Sugar Labs Oversight Board
elections. The main announcement is at
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Sridhar/2011_SLOB_platform


The easiest way to find out about me is to visit my Web site [1].

Amongst a vari­ety of Free and Open Source Software con­tri­bu­tions
since the 1990s [2], I have pre­vi­ously been a board mem­ber of Linux
Aus­tralia and Pres­id­ent of the Sydney Linux Users Group (SLUG). I
have given presentations at various events includ­ing linux.conf.au,
OSDC, SLUG, Soft­ware Free­dom Day and Doc­u­ment Free­dom Day.

For nearly two years I have served full-time as OLPC Australia's
Engineering Manager, liaising between developers and educators to
ensure that we are able to satisfy requirements on the ground. My team
at OLPC Australia take this very seriously, to the point of extending
OLPC's core principles with two of our own [3]:

* Empowering Teachers
* Community Engagement

In my day-to-day work, I am in constant contact with schools,
communities, governments and other relevant bodies. I have developed
an appreciation for Sugar as much more than software - it is a
platform that supports education, community and culture. Everything we
build is done so in consultation with educators and other
stakeholders, in consideration of the whole picture. For instance, the
operating system that we carry on our XOs [4] was developed in tandem
with our certification system [5].

I am proud to say that our approach has shown tremendous success [6].
You can read our Policy Document [7] to gain a full appreciation of
our programme.

As a Sugar Labs Oversight Board member, I aim to bring this same kind
of holistic approach to guiding Sugar. My strength is in using my
extensive Free Software experience to meet real needs on the ground. I
strongly believe that for Sugar to grow, it needs to have strong
representation from all stakeholders, including deployments.

Our contributions to Sugar have been numerous. We have extended the
OLPC XS Schoolserver with our XS-AU [8], creating a far more flexible
collaboration solution. We have partnered with Activity Central to
develop many improvements for the platform. These are currently being
tested in Dextrose developer builds, and will be upstreamed in the
near future.

While it's all well and good to speak about past achievements, it's
important as a Board member to have a vision for the future. We need
to broaden the developer and user base. We need to make it simpler to
access Sugar.

On the developer side, we should embrace [9] Web [10] standards and
allow activities to be created in HTML5. We are working [11] on that.

On the user side, I'd like Sugar to be made available on more devices.
I am encouraged by the work being made to port Sugar to GTK+ 3. This
will lay the groundwork for Sugar on tablets, such as the XO-3. We
need to think ahead to ensure longevity of the Sugar platform and
mission.


[1] http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/about/
[2] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SridharDhanapalan
[3] http://www.laptop.org.au/vision/core-principles
[4] 
https://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xo-au/wiki/List_of_improvements_in_XO-AU_builds_2010-2011
[5] http://edu.laptop.org.au/laptop/xo-cert-course
[6] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO-VNhgZLDw
[7] http://edu.laptop.org.au/laptop/policy-document
[8] https://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki
[9] http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/06/20/why-free-and-open-matters/
[10] http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/06/23/html5-in-sugar/
[11] https://dev.laptop.org.au/issues/742



Sridhar Dhanapalan
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One Laptop per Child Australia
M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
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W: www.laptop.org.au
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[IAEP] Cannes Lions award for OLPC Australia

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

As I have blogged about[0] OLPC Australia[1] have been awarded a
Bronze Lion[2] at this year's Cannes Lions International Advertising
Festival[3], the equi­val­ent of the Cannes Film Fest­ival for
advertising.

I think this is fantastic recognition for a Free Software project[4],
especially one that is focused on assisting children in some of the
most remote parts of the world. I feel honoured to have been part of
this success.

We’re happy for people to get involved to help us in our mis­sion[5].
If you'd like to participate[6], especially (for me) in the technical
field[7], please get in touch with me or contact OLPC Australia[8]
through our Web site.

Sridhar


[0] 
http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/06/25/cannes-lions-award-for-olpc-australia/
[1] http://www.laptop.org.au/
[2] http://www.canneslions.com/work/media/entry.cfm?entryid=1762&award=4
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannes_Lions_International_Advertising_Festival
[4] http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2011/06/20/why-free-and-open-matters/
[5] http://www.laptop.org.au/vision/mission
[6] http://www.laptop.org.au/participate
[7] http://dev.laptop.org.au/participate
[8] http://www.laptop.org.au/contact/general-form



Sridhar Dhanapalan
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One Laptop per Child Australia
M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au
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[IAEP] More 'human' voice synth (TTS)

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

I'm wondering if there's anything we can do to make TTS sound more
'human'. We'd like to be able to use the XOs to teach English
literacy, but the espeak voices are very robotic.

My understanding is that espeak is optimised for low-power devices
(great for XOs) and clear (if robotic) speech. Would it be feasible to
switch to something else, like festival?

This is some food for thought:
http://braille.uwo.ca/pipermail/speakup/2008-July/046755.html

Sridhar


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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
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[IAEP] The OLPC Australia programme in action

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Hi everyone,

Here's a video we produced to mark OLPC Australia's second anniversary:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO-VNhgZLDw

Feel free to distribute far and wide :)



Sridhar Dhanapalan
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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 3 June 2011 22:01, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> Evince (the library used to read PDF) has changed the interface too, then
> does not have sense support the old toolbar.

I don't think I understand - how do the toolbars in Evince affect the
Read activity? Doesn't Read just use the Evince libraries and not the
Evince GUI?

> May be in a few months you can update to 11.2 and use a lot of new features,

Updating thousands of XOs scattered across our 7.6m km^2 continent is
not a task to be taken lightly. We cannot upgrade them all without
some serious planning, and we aren't going to do so just for an
activity. No doubt, other deployments face similar challenges.

Are there any technical limitations in making this activity run on the
current OLPC OS?

Thanks,
Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 31 May 2011 21:00, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> Yes. You can test a preview version in
> http://dev.laptop.org/~gonzalo/Read-89.xo
> In a few days I will publish it in ASLO

Unfortunately it doesn't work on an XO (OLPC/XO-AU OS). The log file
indicates to me that it doesn't support the old (pre-Sugar 0.86)
toolbar API.

Can we please get it working so that existing XOs can run it?

Thanks,
Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 28 May 2011 04:36, James Simmons  wrote:
> Marilyn,
>
> I wrote an Activity called Read Etexts that might be of some use to
> you.  It can take one of the "plain text" files put out by Project
> Gutenberg and read it aloud, like a Kindle.  As it reads the words it
> highlights the word spoken.  The highlighting needs a faster computer
> than an XO to keep up with the word being spoken, but it doesn't need
> to be much faster.
>
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4035

On an XO (OLPC/XO-AU OS), the activity loads but does not provide
speech by default.

To fix, run:

  # yum install gstreamer-plugins-espeak

and restart the activity.

I'm quite impressed with the result!

Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
 Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 30 May 2011 22:24, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> Well, you are describing our solution :)

Great to hear! We are excited about this :)

> Read can open PDF, EPUB, DejaVu and text files. Can do text to speech
> with word highlighting of text files, and only text to speech of EPUB files
> right now.
> The idea is add the capability to the other formats.

I've tried Read 87.2 on an XO with OLPC OS, and Read 88 on Fedora 14.
I don't get any TTS options when I open an EPUB file with them. Is
this functionality still in development?

> This is the description of GetBooks. A deployment can use Pathagar
> to create a book repository. In eduJam, we talked about how improve
> the tagging of books to create catalogs, and we need to do a few changes in
> the server code.
> Nicholas and Daniel worked in code to add dynamic catalogs to GetBooks,
> and we are trying to improve it. GetBooks and Pathagar use the OPDS
> protocol.

That's wonderful. We'd love to be able to add our own repositories.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On further thought, it seems to me that there should be two activities.

The first is a reader. At minimum it should read plain text, PDF and
EPUB files. The Read activity fulfils this requirement. An additional
feature would be text-to-speech, with word highlighting (as Read
ETexts has). In this way, you can run TTS on any source file.

The second is a fetcher. It allows searching through different
pre-defined repositories, and the selected book can be downloaded to
the journal. The Get Books activity fulfils this requirement. Files
opened from the journal open up in the reader. An additional feature
would be to add additional source repositories (similar to how
Software Update works). This will allow deployments to create their
own catalogues of books and make them available online.

I think it's important to split the reading from the fetching to avoid
having an overly complicated activity. The journal is the means by
which they connect.

What do people think of this idea?

Sridhar


On 29 May 2011 04:07, Gonzalo Odiard  wrote:
> Yes, I was working trying to merge the code in Get Books and Read
> activities.
> Now, you can read "plain text" files in Read, and Get Books can download
> books from
> Feedbooks and Internet Archive.
> A missing part is download books from Gutenberg project.
>
> Gonzalo
>
> On Sat, May 28, 2011 at 12:55 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan 
> wrote:
>>
>> On 28 May 2011 04:36, James Simmons  wrote:
>> > Marilyn,
>> >
>> > I wrote an Activity called Read Etexts that might be of some use to
>> > you.  It can take one of the "plain text" files put out by Project
>> > Gutenberg and read it aloud, like a Kindle.  As it reads the words it
>> > highlights the word spoken.  The highlighting needs a faster computer
>> > than an XO to keep up with the word being spoken, but it doesn't need
>> > to be much faster.
>> >
>> > http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4035
>> >
>> > James Simmons
>>
>> This activity looks like it could have some real potential in our
>> deployments.
>>
>> It seems like there's a lot of functionality crossover between Read
>> Etexts, Get Internet Archive Books (your code) and Get Books (based on
>> Get Internet Archive Books). Are there any thoughts about a merger? A
>> reader that could pull content and vocalise the words from all of the
>> sources supported by Get Books (plus external files) would be
>> fantastic!
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Sridhar
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>
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Re: [IAEP] Texas Senate Bills 866 & 867 regarding dyslexia passed over the weekend

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 28 May 2011 04:36, James Simmons  wrote:
> Marilyn,
>
> I wrote an Activity called Read Etexts that might be of some use to
> you.  It can take one of the "plain text" files put out by Project
> Gutenberg and read it aloud, like a Kindle.  As it reads the words it
> highlights the word spoken.  The highlighting needs a faster computer
> than an XO to keep up with the word being spoken, but it doesn't need
> to be much faster.
>
> http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/addon/4035
>
> James Simmons

This activity looks like it could have some real potential in our deployments.

It seems like there's a lot of functionality crossover between Read
Etexts, Get Internet Archive Books (your code) and Get Books (based on
Get Internet Archive Books). Are there any thoughts about a merger? A
reader that could pull content and vocalise the words from all of the
sources supported by Get Books (plus external files) would be
fantastic!

Thanks,
Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 23 May 2011 15:43,   wrote:
>> Sadly, we can't use Moodle. One state here in Australia doesn't like
>> it, to the point where we're going to have to disable or remove it.
>> That makes things "interesting" :(
>
> That still leaves Sharepoint and Blackboard?

Assuming that a Sharepoint/Blackboard/similar server exists *in the
school*. We cannot make that assumption, and we are not going to get
into the business of distributing/installing/supporting Sharepoint or
Blackboard.

I think I like tch's idea of connecting to remote resources through
the Sugar UI.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 19 May 2011 04:15, Martin Langhoff  wrote:
> For file management, I very strongly recommend using WebDAV. It is a
> bit less efficient than "real" network file system protocols, but the
> benefits are many:
>   - more flexibilty
>   - closer to you and me in the stack - you can easily find WebDAV
> toolkits in HLLs that allow you to expose your data as files and
> directories over WebDAV, as well as client implementations
>   - it deals reasonably gracefully with intermittent connectivity
> (SMB/CIFS, NFS, etc get you nasty system freezes if the server
> disappears)
>   - wide range of (fairly well behaved) client and server implementations
>   - a good test suite for the server side
>   - On the XS side... Moodle has a WebDAV implementation and Apache
> has one too.

Interesting. Does WebDAV work as a normal mount, like CIFS or NFS?
What would be the best way to get this working on Sugar?

Thanks,
Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 21 May 2011 03:49, Martin Langhoff  wrote:
> On Fri, May 20, 2011 at 2:12 AM,   wrote:
>> why not use Moodle or Sharepoint or Blackboard?
>
> Yeah - there's an easy-installation Moodle package. That's what I'd go with.

Sadly, we can't use Moodle. One state here in Australia doesn't like
it, to the point where we're going to have to disable or remove it.
That makes things "interesting" :(

Ideally we want to be able to use a resource that is present in the
school, rather than requiring a round-trip across the Internet to a
server somewhere else.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 18 May 2011 16:49, Sascha Silbe  wrote:
> Excerpts from Martin Langhoff's message of Tue May 17 18:34:09 +0200 2011:
>
>> Unfortuntely, there's no easy way to do it with CIFS or NFS -- it
>> would be an interesting addition to Sugar (possibly to the Journal)
>> but it's a big project.
>
> NFS mounts do turn up as storage devices in the Journal (at least on
> Debian Squeeze). They will be treated exactly the same as other storage
> devices, i.e. USB sticks and SD cards. I would expect CIFS mounts to
> behave the same way. Don't forget to tweak the mount options to avoid
> processes from going zombie-like on connection loss.

How much network traffic would this generate, and how well does it
perform? I find that Sugar is slow with network or physically
connected volumes because it tries to index everything and then write
metadata on the remote end. The metadata can be annoying as it
pollutes the volume.

Sridhar
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Re: [IAEP] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 18 May 2011 02:34, Martin Langhoff  wrote:
> Hi Sridhar,
>
> I don't fully understand your scenario.

I'll admit that I was vague. Let me clarify...

> You say an XS is not an option... but I thought you were using XS,
> with Jerry's help?  If you are using XS, you can use Moodle.

We are actively engaged in XS development. However, schools and
departments of education are not ready for it at this stage. The XS-AU
installations that we do have are quite successful.

There's a lot I can say on this topic based on the situation in
Australian schools, but I'll have to leave that for a later date. For
the foreseeable future, we'll have to manage in most schools without
XSs.

> If there is no XS, then any webbased tool that offers a file upload
> form to post a file to share will work. You can install Moodle (even
> on Windows servers ;-) ), or Mahara, or WordPad or anything you like.
> In a pure-MS world, it will probably work with Sharepoint if it has a
> usable web frontend.
>
> Unfortuntely, there's no easy way to do it with CIFS or NFS -- it
> would be an interesting addition to Sugar (possibly to the Journal)
> but it's a big project.

The schools have Windows-based servers that I know for sure allow CIFS
connections. I'll have to investigate if there are alternate means of
connecting (maybe a Web interface).

Cheers,
Sridhar
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[IAEP] copy files to/from server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

How can XOs copy files to/from their Journal with a server? We want
the ability for teachers to easily make files available for children,
and for children to upload to the server.

It's not practical to install another server (so an XS is not an
option). Most schools have a Windows-based server, so they could use
CIFS files shares. Accessing this is doable through GNOME, but not in
Sugar with the Journal.




Sridhar Dhanapalan
Technical Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au
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Re: [IAEP] [Sugar-devel] XO power management hindering collaboration

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 16 May 2011 04:51, Samuel Greenfeld  wrote:
> In what build(s) is this occurring?  And are you using a schoolserver or
> not?
>
> OLPC release 10.1.3 fixed some issues with XO 1.5's waking up in response to
> multicast traffic on the network.  This is necessary for Salut/"under the
> tree" usage to work with power management.  XO-1's with 10.1.3 are
> configured by default to always stay on, as they (to the best of my
> understanding) historically have had an occasional issue where the network
> card might not reappear after suspending.
>
> In 11.2.0 both XO-1's and 1.5's currently are allowed to suspend, although I
> do not know if that will be the final setting.

This is with OLPC OS 10.1.3 (XO-AU 10.1.3-au2 - we haven't made any
changes that would affect reliability of collaboration). The XOs were
registered and using an XS.

I've reported this at http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/10878

Sridhar


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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
 Sydney, NSW 2001
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[IAEP] XO power management hindering collaboration

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

It's looking to us that the aggressive power management enabled on the
XO can sometimes create confusion when children are collaborating on
activities.

Take for example a turn-based game like Memorise. If a child is
waiting for their turn, they might leave the XO untouched. In that
time, power management can kick in, and the XO stops communicating
over the wireless network. Waking up the XO (e.g. by touching the pad)
doesn't always rejoin the XO to the game properly. The whole game is
stalled because the turn cannot be completed.

Are there any ways we can manage this in our deployments? Perhaps some
guidelines to give to teachers so that they have a reasonable
expectation?

Thanks,
Sridhar



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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
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Re: [IAEP] ejabber school server

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 28 April 2011 18:16, Rita Freudenberg  wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a question reagrding the school server installation. When I have a 
> network server already (centos 5 for instance), would it be possible to just 
> take the ejabber-package from the school server to connect the sugar laptops?
>
> Thanks,
> Rita

Our XS-AU is an improved version of the OLPC XS. Version 1.0 (still in
development, but very stable) is based on Fedora 11. It can be easily
installed over an existing Fedora 11 installation:
http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki/Install_on_an_existing_Fedora_installation

Given that CentOS 5 is based on Fedora 11, that might work.

For more information on the project:
http://dev.laptop.org.au/projects/xs-au/wiki/Wiki



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Re: [IAEP] Chess activities

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 28 April 2011 19:40, Kevin Kirton  wrote:
> Would you need a chess engine though? Obviously you would if you
> wanted an activity where a player could play against the XO. But a
> chess engine would be heavy work for the XO wouldn't it?
> Wouldn't a simple on-screen chess board with collaboration enabled be
> a good fit for the XOs?

I found pychess to be really slow on an XO-1. It might also depend on
how good you want the engine to be. I don't like dumbing things down,
but perhaps a simpler engine might perform better on XO hardware.

Mind you, it might just be slow because it's written in Python :p

Sridhar
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[IAEP] Chess activities

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

I came across an article about the educational benefits of learning chess:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13140772

So I thought it'd be a great idea to include a chess activity on our
XOs. To my surprise, all I could find on aslo were ported GCompris
programmes.

Are there any _native_ Sugar activities that allow children to learn
chess and play with their friends via Sugar collaboration?



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M: +61 425 239 701
E: srid...@laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
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[IAEP] World Bank Apps for Development

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

Has anyone from the Sugar community considered making an entry to the
Apps for Development contest?

  http://appsfordevelopment.challengepost.com/

A requirement is that the application use a data set from the World
Bank. This might make it difficult to make something for children, but
I'm sure someone cleverer than me can work out an angle to take.



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E: srid...@laptop.org.au
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[IAEP] Sugar distributions for teachers and volunteers [WAS: Congratulations to OLPC Australia!]

[Sridhar Dhanapalan]

On 1 April 2010 08:42, Martin Sevior  wrote:
> I came across this article in the mainstream Australian National
> Newspaper, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
>
> http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/joy-as-computer-power-comes-to-yirrkala/story-e6frg6nf-1225848236378
>
> A massive congratulations to OLPC Australia for this. Those are 3 very
> powerful heavy hitters you have in your corner!
> (And normally companies Australians are very cynical of.)
>
> Congratulations!
>
> Martin

A belated thanks, Martin!

Our deployments are really hotting up, and we could use some
assistance from the Sugar community. We are looking at better ways to
distribute Sugar, as a means of making people more comfortable with
the software found on the XOs.

We have a two main use cases:

  1. a teacher who is using or intends to use XOs in their classroom
  2. any random person who wants to try Sugar

The version of Sugar used should reflect what is available on the
XO-1.5 units (we will no longer deploy XO-1s), to provide consistency.
This will mean that we will not be distributing the latest version of
Sugar. We want to be able to hand out media with Sugar already
installed, so that it can be easy to get involved. On top of that, we
want to provide:

  1. documentation for using Sugar and XOs for educational purposes
  2. tools and files to create more of the media (e.g. ISO file and USB creator)

Some considerations:

  1. it should be as easy to use as possible
  2. it should be cross-platform in terms of hardware and OS

At the moment, I have three ideas in mind:

  1. Sugar on a Stick, on a USB stick with some persistent storage
  2. a virtual machine image (e.g. for VirtualBox)
  3. a LiveCD

The First idea is for the teachers we will be training to use XOs in
the classroom. This will allow them to use Sugar even before they have
an XO. It also lets them use the VGA port on their laptops to project
the Sugar UI so that they whole class can see. The Second idea lets
people test-drive Sugar without going through the trouble of
rebooting. The Third idea is useful simply because it is cheap: we can
press CDs in the hundreds and give them away whenever we want.

We'll take care of the production of the media. The end result should
be a professionally-looking USB stick or CD.

A challenge I have found is that there appear to be many ways to
acquire and use Sugar, scattered across multiple pages on
wiki.sugarlabs.org. I'm somewhat confused as to which are the best
paths to take.

I'd appreciate the Sugar community's assistance with this.

Thanks!
Sridhar


Sridhar Dhanapalan
Technical Co-ordinator
OLPC Australia
p: +61 425 239 701
w: http://laptop.org.au
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