Re: [Sugar-devel] Pippy not ready for Sucrose

[Simon Schampijer]

Brian Jordan wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 2:21 PM, Simon Schampijer  wrote:
>> Simon Schampijer wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> the Sucrose package of Pippy is version 25 - when I last released it
>>> back in August. Since then there has been some development going into
>>> Pippy (now version 30)
>>> http://dev.laptop.org/git?p=projects/pippy-activity;a=shortlog
>>>
>>> But none of the maintainers did follow the Sucrose release cycle, even
>>> though I sent a reminder
>>> http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/sugar/2008-November/010021.html
>>>
>>> Any, specific reason for that? Pippy has not been moved to
>>> git.sugarlabs.org, as well.
>>>
>>> please indicate clearly:
>>> * if you still want to be part of Sucrose (including following the
>>> release cycle)
>>> * any new maintainer that is willing to do this task if you does not want to
>>> * any issues/reasons you have to do so
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Simon
>>
>> To follow up on this, I mainly want to find a maintainer for Pippy for
>> Sucrose. If there is no one willing to do that we drop it, which is ok -
>> one can still download the xo etc, I just want a clearer situation.
>>
> Hi,

Hi Brian,

this is awesome!

> I will maintain Pippy for Sucrose, though I may need a bit of hand holding.

Hand holding we provide as a default service, you are always welcome to 
ask if things are unclear.

> Please let me know if what I did seems correct (esp. step 2):
> 
> 1. l got the most recent version of Pippy from git
> git-clone git://dev.laptop.org/projects/pippy-activity
> cd pippy-activity
> 
> 2. ./setup.py gave a bunch of "invalid entry in MANIFEST" errors about
> different locales, so I ran:
> ./setup.py fix_manifest

Did you use 0.82 when doing ./setup.py dist_source?

The dist_source command uses git-ls-files to get the files it will 
package into the tarball. So only files that are in git will get into 
the source tarball.

The dist_xo command uses the manifest as a source to determine the files 
present. Only files in the manifest will be present in the bundle.

There was an error in the activitybundle code in 0.82 that tried to read 
the manifest as well in the source case - which is not needed. Hence, 
the warnings you saw about the incorrect manifest should not be seen 
when packaging the sources. This is fixed in recent code.

Hope to have explained a bit the possible story around this error.

> 3. ./setup.py dist_source
> 
> 4. I asked a crank sysadmin to add me to the Sugar group,
> And I moved Pippy-30.tar.bz2 to:
> http://dev.laptop.org/pub/sugar/sources/Pippy/Pippy-30.tar.bz2 (805K)

The exact release process for the Sucrose release is described here: 
http://sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/Release#Fructose

> I will move pippy over to git.sugarlabs.org as well.

Instructions for that can be found at: 
http://sugarlabs.org/go/DevelopmentTeam/Git#Import_a_module_from_dev.laptop.org

> Thanks,
> Brian

Thank you,
Simon

>> Wade, do you have maybe someone in mind?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>Simon
>>
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>>
> 

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Turning off the mesh to save battery power

[Bryan Berry]

hey guys, here in Nepal we are deciding whether or not to turn off the
mesh on our custom XO build in order to save power. We will leave on
regular wifi. 

Any ideas on how much power we will actually save? An extra hour of
battery life would be worth it

-- 
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Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org

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Turning off the mesh to save battery power

[Bryan Berry]

hey guys, here in Nepal we are deciding whether or not to turn off the
mesh on our custom XO build in order to save power. We will leave on
regular wifi. 

Any ideas on how much power we will actually save? An extra hour of
battery life would be worth it

-- 
Bryan W. Berry
Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
-- 
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Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org

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Re: [Testing] Notes from an impromptu 8.2.1 Release Mtg.

[Ties Stuij]

Guys,
could someone update the mock 8.2.1 repos git repo?
would make my life a lot easier and seems like a sensible thing to do.
Thanks a lot!

/Ties

On Fri, Jan 23, 2009 at 1:29 AM, Michael Stone  wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Kim Quirk kindly stopped by #olpc-meeting this evening and precipitated an
> impromptu discussion between herself, me, cjb, edmcnierney, mchua, and
> garycmartin on how to push 8.2.1 a few inches closer to release.
>
> The main conclusion that we reached after we updated
>
>   http://dev.laptop.org/report/38
>
> was that staging-9 [1] needs some testing! In particular, it's got 
> long-awaited
> new wireless firmware and wifi kernel drivers which means that we need to know
> whether it still associates with your crazy encrypted access points. :)
>
> At any rate, the bottom line is that YOU can personally help >100k kids in
> Uruguay get access to 8.2.* faster by helping to test this build. (Guadalupe
> and Emiliano in Uruguay have already helped to test fixes for some of the
> issues they found in 8.2.0 but more (your!) testing help is still needed!)
> So, on that note, thanks very much in advance for any help that you can 
> provide.
>
> Voluntarily yours,
>
> Michael
>
> P.S. - Bryan -- would you please update FiT with instructions for staging-9
> wifi-testing?
>
> P.P.S. - I'd like to host a test party at 1cc sometime in the next two weeks 
> to
> try to do some large-scale collaboration and wifi testing such as was 
> requested
> by dsd [2] in preparation for his trip to Paraguay tomorrow [3]. Would
> interested people who might be in Boston in the next two weeks please mail me
> to let me know good days and times for them to come help test?
>
> P.P.P.S. - The major coding work left before we can wrap up 8.2.1 is currently
> resting on Mitch Bradley's capable shoulders [4]. I'm looking forward to
> receiving a new OFW snapshot from him for testing in the not-too-distant
> future.
>
> [1]: 
> (http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build9/devel_jffs2)
> [2]: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Profiles/DanielDrake
>  -- dsd, update you profile!
> [3]: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Deployment_meetings/20090120#Summary
> [4]: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Profiles/wmb
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Re: Notes from an impromptu 8.2.1 Release Mtg.

[Bert Freudenberg]

On 27.01.2009, at 05:33, S Page wrote:

> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Friends_in_testing still points to staging-7
> and says "The 8.2.1 build is currently identical to 8.2.0".  ??!

It still is identical:

http://dev.laptop.org/~bert/8.2-8.2.1.html

"Staging" is not "8.2.1" (yet).

- Bert -


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Re: Notes from an impromptu 8.2.1 Release Mtg.

[Daniel Drake]

2009/1/27 S Page :
> `sudo olpc-update staging-9` gives
> "I don't think the requested build number exists."

I get the same for staging-11, I guess we have to use the full .img
(or olpc-update --usb) for now:
http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build11/devel_jffs2/

Daniel
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Re: multitouch + audio feedback linux dev -> XO-2?

[Wade Brainerd]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 11:57 PM,  wrote:

> On Mon, 26 Jan 2009, Wade Brainerd wrote:
>
> Here's to staying focused,
>>
>
> agreed, but I don't see how you can do a keyboard and not have some
> multi-touch stuff (shift keys to start with)
>
> I am in the group that has serious doubts about the current XO-2 design. I
> suspect that when push comes to shove the idea of the second screen being
> the keyboard will go the way of the crank in the XO-1
>

You've got a point about the keyboard, in my haste to rant I totally
sidestepped that :)  A piano keyboard would be pretty lame if it didn't
support chords.  That said, I was reacting to the idea that Multi-Pointer X
was the way to handle the screen from a software standpoint.  Instead, if
the hardware supports multitouch, a custom API should be developed just for
the keyboard based on instantaneous pressure.  Multi-pointer would be
overkill to a simple solution.

-Wade
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[Server-devel] Upgrade to 0.5.1

[Reuben K. Caron]

There seems to be a differing set of instructions on how to upgrade:

from the wiki:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Installing_Software#Upgrading_from_XS_0.4_or_earlier

"If you are upgrading from XS 0.4 or earlier, the process is similar to
a new installation, with some minor changes. In the menu shown right
after booting, you should choose the (preselected) 'Install with
kickstart' option, press the Tab key, and add 'upgradeany' to the boot
configuration line. After adding that line, press enter twice.
With this extra option, Anaconda will recognise the old installation and
will offer to upgrade."

the second from server-devel:

http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/server-devel/2008-November/002493.html

"Just to make this clear, for the upgrade to work you need to select one
of the top two options, hit tab and then append "upgradeany". The
default selection has the ks.cfg file which prevent the upgrade choice
from appearing as an option in anaconda. (thinks it's the partitioning
info being present)"

Passing upgradeany to the kickstart option does not work. Passing
upgradeany to the top two options does work.

Two questions:

1. Which should be used.
2. If you pass upgradeany to one of the top two options that does not
use the kickstart, do you lose any functionalality?

Thanks,
Reuben



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Re: Problem running Sugar on openSUSE 11.0

[James Simmons]

Jigish,

I am convinced that my installation of openSUSE 11.1 is messed up and my 
best option is to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade.  David 
Fanning had asked me to do a ./sugar-jhbuild depscheck and the only way 
I could run that was to do a git-clone of sugar-jhbuild first.  When I 
tried to do that I got a message saying that git-clone was not found, 
yet YAST and rpm -V both said that git-core (which YAST showed as 
containing that command) was installed.  The file was definitely missing 
though.  I'm guessing that something similar is happening with 
python-telepathy.  I also find that neither of the DVD burning apps that 
come with the distro can recognize my DVD burner, but I have no trouble 
mounting DVDs on it.  11.0 also had some odd problems that I thought 
upgrading to 11.1 had fixed, but apparently some problems remain.

Tonight I'll do the clean install and run your zypper commands again and 
I'll let you know how it went.  Thanks,

James Simmons

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Re: Problem running Sugar on openSUSE 11.0

[James Simmons]

Tomeu,

As I have described in a previous email, I think my openSUSE 11.1 
upgrade is messed up.  Several files seem to be missing even though YAST 
and rpm -V show the packages being installed.  I plan to do a fresh 
install rather than an upgrade to see if that helps.


I did run the command you asked to run last night.  In case the results 
are still of interest, here they are:


# installing zipimport hook
import zipimport # builtin
# installed zipimport hook
# /usr/lib/python2.6/site.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/site.py
import site # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/site.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/os.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/os.py
import os # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/os.pyc
import errno # builtin
import posix # builtin
# /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.py
import posixpath # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/posixpath.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.py
import stat # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/stat.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.py
import genericpath # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/genericpath.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.py
import warnings # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/warnings.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.py
import linecache # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/linecache.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/types.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/types.py
import types # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/types.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/UserDict.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/UserDict.py
import UserDict # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/UserDict.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/_abcoll.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/_abcoll.py
import _abcoll # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/_abcoll.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/abc.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/abc.py
import abc # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/abc.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/copy_reg.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/copy_reg.py
import copy_reg # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/copy_reg.pyc
import encodings # directory /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings
# /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/__init__.pyc matches 
/usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/__init__.py
import encodings # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/__init__.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/codecs.pyc matches /usr/lib/python2.6/codecs.py
import codecs # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/codecs.pyc
import _codecs # builtin
# /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/aliases.pyc matches 
/usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/aliases.py
import encodings.aliases # precompiled from 
/usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/aliases.pyc
# /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/utf_8.pyc matches 
/usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/utf_8.py
import encodings.utf_8 # precompiled from /usr/lib/python2.6/encodings/utf_8.pyc
Python 2.6 (r26:66714, Dec  3 2008, 06:05:48) 
[GCC 4.3.2 [gcc-4_3-branch revision 141291]] on linux2

Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
Traceback (most recent call last):
 File "", line 1, in 
ImportError: No module named telepathy
# clear __builtin__._
# clear sys.path
# clear sys.argv
# clear sys.ps1
# clear sys.ps2
# clear sys.exitfunc
# clear sys.exc_type
# clear sys.exc_value
# clear sys.exc_traceback
# clear sys.last_type
# clear sys.last_value
# clear sys.last_traceback
# clear sys.path_hooks
# clear sys.path_importer_cache
# clear sys.meta_path
# clear sys.flags
# clear sys.float_info
# restore sys.stdin
# restore sys.stdout
# restore sys.stderr
# cleanup __main__
# cleanup[1] encodings
# cleanup[1] site
# cleanup[1] abc
# cleanup[1] _codecs
# cleanup[1] _warnings
# cleanup[1] zipimport
# cleanup[1] encodings.utf_8
# cleanup[1] codecs
# cleanup[1] signal
# cleanup[1] posix
# cleanup[1] encodings.aliases
# cleanup[1] exceptions
# cleanup[2] copy_reg
# cleanup[2] posixpath
# cleanup[2] errno
# cleanup[2] _abcoll
# cleanup[2] types
# cleanup[2] genericpath
# cleanup[2] stat
# cleanup[2] warnings
# cleanup[2] UserDict
# cleanup[2] os.path
# cleanup[2] linecache
# cleanup[2] os
# cleanup sys
# cleanup __builtin__
# cleanup ints: 19 unfreed ints
# cleanup floats

Thanks,

James Simmons


Tomeu Vizoso wrote:

Can you attach the output of:

python -v -c 'import telepathy'

Thanks,

Tomeu


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New staging build 13

[Build Announcer v2]

http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build13

Changes in build 13 from build: 11

Size delta: 0.00M

-sugar-journal 100-1.olpc3
+sugar-journal 101-1.olpc3

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New staging build 13

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Changes in build 13 from build: 11

Size delta: 0.00M

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VIG Meeting Today at 4 PM EST

[Ed McNierney]

This is a reminder of the weekly VIG meeting at 4 PM EST in #olpc- 
admin on oftc.

I have had a few things come up and I will be unable to attend or  
chair the meeting today.  Henry has generously volunteered to serve as  
our secretary; if someone else would like to step in to chair today's  
meeting, please edit the draft agenda at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC:VIG

Sorry for the short notice - thanks for all the VIG help - I guess  
this means I get all the job assignments this week .

- Ed
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New staging build 15

[Build Announcer v2]

http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build15

Changes in build 15 from build: 13

Size delta: 0.00M

-olpc-utils 0.89-5.olpc3
+olpc-utils 0.89-6.olpc3
-libX11 1.1.4-3.olpc3
+libX11 1.1.4-4.olpc3
-xkeyboard-config 1.3-6.olpc3
+xkeyboard-config 1.3-7.olpc3

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Soas snapshot

[Marco Pesenti Gritti]

You can download the iso here:

http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/1/Soas-200901271941.iso

Instructions on how to install it are here:

http://sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick

I also made an experimental image for the XO. It's not signed, so you
will need security disabled, if you want to try it.

http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/xoimages/soas1.img
http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/xoimages/soas1.crc

Marco
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AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Carlos Nazareno]

AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight

Looks like AMD's going to be pulling out of the low-power computing
space because of the economic crunch.

This is completely wrong and low-power + efficiency is exactly where
all computing should go. multicore GHz monsters should be sold to
people who really need them and not to joe average who just needs to
surf and do ms office work.

sorry guys, lack sleep, thanks for all the pointers on multitouch &
audio feedback interface - I saw really amazing stuff and am tickled
pink that the precise methods I just outlined are already being worked
on :)

will reply on all these when I get back. This latest piece of news has
been an extremely frustrating development for me and goes completely
against the grain of ubiquitous sustainable computing for everyone +
bridging the digital divide. wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong

see you guys later. 

-- 
Carlos Nazareno
http://twitter.com/naz404
http://www.object404.com
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Jeffrey Kesselman]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:
>e of the economic crunch.
>
> This is completely wrong and low-power + efficiency is exactly where
> all computing should go. multicore GHz monsters should be sold to
> people who really need them and not to joe average who just needs to
> surf and do ms office work.

What  makes you think that's all the average Joe does with his computer?

This is a blindness that always amazes me when I see it. Does every
single motherboard now come with
a 3D chip to suf the web and do ms office work?

Since the beginning of the microcomputer revolution people have SAID
they were buyign the computer to
word process, or do spreadsheets, but the number one selling pecie fo
software, the one
comaptability test every clone maker had tio pass, was running MS
Flight Simualtor.

People say they buy computers to work, but by and large they really
buy them to play.  And geodes
wont run modern games so they aren't selling.
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Re: Soas snapshot

[Gary C Martin]

Hi Marco,

On 27 Jan 2009, at 23:00, Marco Pesenti Gritti wrote:

> You can download the iso here:
>
> http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/snapshots/1/Soas-200901271941.iso
>
> Instructions on how to install it are here:
>
> http://sugarlabs.org/go/Sugar_on_a_Stick
>
> I also made an experimental image for the XO. It's not signed, so you
> will need security disabled, if you want to try it.
>
> http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/xoimages/soas1.img
> http://download.sugarlabs.org/soas/xoimages/soas1.crc

Cool.

Any tips as to what to do with these 2 on an XO? The only thing I've  
done with .img and .crc before is copy-nand from firmware – is it  
possible to run them from a usb stick without wiping nand or effecting  
the existing nand install (so we can encourage safe(er) testing of new  
code)?

Regards,
--Gary

> Marco
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Tiago Marques]

Hi.
On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 11:14 PM, Jeffrey Kesselman wrote:

> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 6:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno 
> wrote:
> >e of the economic crunch.
> >
> > This is completely wrong and low-power + efficiency is exactly where
> > all computing should go. multicore GHz monsters should be sold to
> > people who really need them and not to joe average who just needs to
> > surf and do ms office work.
>
> What  makes you think that's all the average Joe does with his computer?
>
> This is a blindness that always amazes me when I see it. Does every
> single motherboard now come with
> a 3D chip to suf the web and do ms office work?
>
> Since the beginning of the microcomputer revolution people have SAID
> they were buyign the computer to
> word process, or do spreadsheets, but the number one selling pecie fo
> software, the one
> comaptability test every clone maker had tio pass, was running MS
> Flight Simualtor.
>
> People say they buy computers to work, but by and large they really
> buy them to play.  And geodes
> wont run modern games so they aren't selling.


Neither do Celerons ULV 900 and the current Intel Atom, just see how they
are doing. Call them the Wii of personal computers, if you may.
One of the problems with the Geode LX is that it doesn't run youtube quite
right.
As sales of the OLPC G1G1 came down to 7% of last year, it seems people
didn't like to pay more for a "netbook" that doesn't do youtube how a $199
EEE does. That 93% less Geodes sold sure must help AMD to not look at the
Geode the same way. A Geode shrunk to 45nm sure would help the XO, heck,
even a 65nm one would.
Perhaps time for a "Get 4 Give 1" program? Where each XO sold to the public,
1/4 of it's value is for a donated XO. That could help bring mass production
closer to the desired numbers, mass public availability sure has helped that
darn Classmate.
Just my 2 cents.

Best regards,
   Tiago Marques
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Martin Langhoff]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:
> AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
> AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
> chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight

This has been relatively well known in the industry for a while. It
means they'll keep cranking more Geodes if you want to buy them, but
there will not be a "next" Geode chip. Maybe they'll come out with
another low-power cpu line sometime in the future, maybe not.

Intel and Via are the most interesting options right now in this
space, and both seem to be working on a "next" chip.

PCWorld and friends are for the consumer market, so they are about a
year behind on the news I'd say...

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
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Carlos Nazareno]

it's the low power part that's very important here. it's the XO's
incredibly low power consumption that really sets it apart from any
other currently in production computer (excluding smartphones and
pdas).

I'm not really familiar with the new processors from Intel
(silverthorne, diamondville) and Via's, but can they run at as low
power consumption as the Geode and provide the same (and if not
better) MHz bang for the consumption?

Do ARM processors do these things better than anything else on the
market right now? but then you lose the X86 compatibility and this
probably breaks things for cross-platform upstream contributions for
any deved/researched write-once-run-many apps/projects. (correct me if
I'm wrong, am just speculating because I'm not a CE and as well-versed
with computer architecture)

I've always loved AMD's cool and quiet technology and am pretty much
cursing the unrelenting power draw of my core2-quad desktop coz my UPS
battery life has gone down the drain and electric bill has spiked so
high since I replaced my lowly Sempron.

(I do have the need for speed for rendering)

As for games, can we just classify the XO in the same class as
current-gen smartphones horsepower wise and not market it as anything
other than that? That's pretty much how we're running the Flash Dev
for the XO project because that's exactly how the XO performs (and
it's a hell of a lot better than any smartphone in the market for
heavier mobile computing and education!)

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Martin Langhoff
 wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:
>> AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
>> AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
>> chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
>> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
>
> This has been relatively well known in the industry for a while. It
> means they'll keep cranking more Geodes if you want to buy them, but
> there will not be a "next" Geode chip. Maybe they'll come out with
> another low-power cpu line sometime in the future, maybe not.
>
> Intel and Via are the most interesting options right now in this
> space, and both seem to be working on a "next" chip.
>
> PCWorld and friends are for the consumer market, so they are about a
> year behind on the news I'd say...
>
> 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
>



-- 
Carlos Nazareno
http://twitter.com/naz404
http://www.object404.com
--
interactive media specialist
zen graffiti studios
http://www.zengraffiti.com
--
User Group Manager
Phlashers: Philippine Flash ActionScripters
Adobe Flash/Flex User Group
http://www.phlashers.com
--
"if you don't like the way the world is running,
then change it instead of just complaining."
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Tiago Marques]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:35 AM, Carlos Nazareno wrote:

> it's the low power part that's very important here. it's the XO's
> incredibly low power consumption that really sets it apart from any
> other currently in production computer (excluding smartphones and
> pdas).

Of course! But, I was quite disapointed when I knew that the 0.9W they
announce for the Geode LX is only the idle power, on typical usage it's more
like:
LX 8...@0.9 W: clock speed: 500 MHz, with power consumption: 1.8 watts. (*TDP
3.6 W*)
Borrowed this line from wikipedia. Now take a look at this one:
Atom Z500, 800 MHz, 512 KiB, 0.80 - 1.1V, *0.65 W TDP, 160 mW* *idle* - $20
As much as I don't really like Intel for the Classmate, this is miles ahead
of the Geode LX. And it's not what I'd call expensive, although I don't have
an ideia of how much the Geode in the XO costs.

>
>
> I'm not really familiar with the new processors from Intel
> (silverthorne, diamondville) and Via's, but can they run at as low
> power consumption as the Geode and provide the same (and if not
> better) MHz bang for the consumption?
>
> Do ARM processors do these things better than anything else on the
> market right now? but then you lose the X86 compatibility and this
> probably breaks things for cross-platform upstream contributions for
> any deved/researched write-once-run-many apps/projects. (correct me if
> I'm wrong, am just speculating because I'm not a CE and as well-versed
>
> with computer architecture)
>
> Some laptop manufacturers are designing hybrid laptops with a regular x86
processor and an ARM to boot a small linux distribution from flash, so it
must not be that bad. AFAIK, ARM and Canonical will be doing a push for ARM
Linux in the coming months.


>
>
> I've always loved AMD's cool and quiet technology and am pretty much
> cursing the unrelenting power draw of my core2-quad desktop coz my UPS
> battery life has gone down the drain and electric bill has spiked so
> high since I replaced my lowly Sempron.
>
> (I do have the need for speed for rendering)
>
Pretty much all of Intel's power management sucks, even in laptops. Mostly
they don't allow the CPU to clock too low, for whatever reason, while AMD
can clock down to 800-1GHz almost all CPUs.
Also, do you know one thing that Celeron Ms lack is power management?
Unbelievable, given their target market.


> As for games, can we just classify the XO in the same class as
> current-gen smartphones horsepower wise and not market it as anything
> other than that? That's pretty much how we're running the Flash Dev
> for the XO project because that's exactly how the XO performs (and
> it's a hell of a lot better than any smartphone in the market for
> heavier mobile computing and education!)
>
Right you are, I love this little piece of hardware.
Best regards,
 Tiago Marques


> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 8:01 AM, Martin Langhoff
>  wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno 
> wrote:
> >> AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
> >> AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
> >> chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
> >>
> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
> >
> > This has been relatively well known in the industry for a while. It
> > means they'll keep cranking more Geodes if you want to buy them, but
> > there will not be a "next" Geode chip. Maybe they'll come out with
> > another low-power cpu line sometime in the future, maybe not.
> >
> > Intel and Via are the most interesting options right now in this
> > space, and both seem to be working on a "next" chip.
> >
> > PCWorld and friends are for the consumer market, so they are about a
> > year behind on the news I'd say...
> >
> > 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
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Carlos Nazareno
> http://twitter.com/naz404
> http://www.object404.com
> --
> interactive media specialist
> zen graffiti studios
> http://www.zengraffiti.com
> --
> User Group Manager
> Phlashers: Philippine Flash ActionScripters
> Adobe Flash/Flex User Group
> http://www.phlashers.com
> --
> "if you don't like the way the world is running,
> then change it instead of just complaining."
> ___
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>
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes (Carlos Nazareno)

[Mitch Bradley]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:

> > AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
> > AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
> > chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
> > http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
>   

The cost of developing and supporting a processor family is staggering.

AMD bought the Geode business from another company.  Often, when a company buys 
a business unit, that unit withers on the vine.  The "new kids on the block" 
have a difficult time establishing a strong place within the established 
"pecking order", so in the competition for resources, the new group often comes 
up short.  When there is an economic downturn, the new group is often the first 
to go.

AMD barely has the resources to maintain a competitive stance in the part of 
the market that has traditionally been their core, especially now that the 
economy is bad.

I'm sure that AMD would be very happy if they had enough money to go after the 
low power market, but they just don't.


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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Jerome Gotangco]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 7:04 AM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:
> Looks like AMD's going to be pulling out of the low-power computing
> space because of the economic crunch.

At least they're not completely shutting down the fabrication of
existing technologies that would still need Geode-type of components.
They (AMD) have been struggling for quite some time, and I guess the
other players have been doing their share of improvements into low
power computing (Freescale, VIA, etc.)

-- 
Jerome G.

Blog: http://gotangco.blogspot.com
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Re: Small DNS questions.

[Martin Langhoff]

On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 8:06 AM, Michael Stone  wrote:
>  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Network_principles#Name_resolution

Even if we were to do all sorts of DNS smartypants stuff - the only
protocol where we can play games is http. The protocol is highly
proxy-able, redirect-able and nimble, and most importantly, all the
_clients_ are specially adept and handling odd "bait-and-switch"
abuse.

For example, the kind of behaviour that you see when connecting to
commercial Wifi hotspots -- these days they mostly do the right thing
(unless your initial connection was https), but they used to muck with
DNS. Badly.

Every other (useful) protocol I can see in my /etc/services breaks if
you try this stuff. Maybe some limited interactions work -- like with
SMTP -- but overall, it just doesn't work.

We can muck with HTTP with a transparent proxy that allows us to serve
some "remote" URLs locally. I want to avoid it, but if we have to do
it, we will. Every other protocol - I plan to leave alone :-)

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
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Benjamin M. Schwartz]

Carlos Nazareno wrote:
> Do ARM processors do these things better than anything else on the
> market right now? but then you lose the X86 compatibility and this
> probably breaks things for cross-platform upstream contributions for
> any deved/researched write-once-run-many apps/projects. (correct me if
> I'm wrong, am just speculating because I'm not a CE and as well-versed
> with computer architecture)

Sugar has been tested on both x86 and ARM [1].  I expect it would run
perfectly on MIPS, PPC, SPARC, Itanium, Alpha...  Linux runs on just about
every major architecture, and I expect the same of just about any
Linux-based system.

I'm not too worried about upstream support.  Our Activities are mostly
written in Python or portable C, and the underlying operating system is
typically based on Fedora, Debian[2], Gentoo[3]... which already support
all of the above architectures.

It's true that you lose the ability to run arbitrary binaries from other
platforms, but this is only important if you care about closed-source
code.  Most important open source programs are easily recompiled for any
architecture.

--Ben

[1] http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardSugar
[2] http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
[3] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/index.xml#doc_chap4



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Re: Turning off the mesh to save battery power

[John Gilmore]

> hey guys, here in Nepal we are deciding whether or not to turn off the
> mesh on our custom XO build in order to save power. We will leave on
> regular wifi. 
> 
> Any ideas on how much power we will actually save? An extra hour of
> battery life would be worth it

(1) Try it and see, that's probably the easiest way.  Every laptop has
an instrument in the battery that you can measure its power draw with.
See:

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

When I measured it on 2008-09-12, I got about 0.2w difference between 
a WiFi access point and mesh.  It probably matters how busy your mesh
is, since transmitting uses more power than just sitting there waiting
to receive.

(2) The big win in 8.2.0 from turning mesh off is that the entire WiFi
chip can be powered down when the laptop is closed and suspends.  This
stretches the suspend time from about 8 hours to at least 48 hours,
meaning the kids can just close the lid rather than power-off.  Then
the laptop will be instantly available whenever they open it (e.g. at
home).  If the mesh is still on, the WiFi chip needs power to do its
packet-forwarding job.

(3) If you want an extra hour of battery life, work on the screen
dimming algorithm, or teach kids to turn down their brightness to
increase battery life.  Summary from my results: "Normal power
consumption of about 6 watts. By dimming the screen, you can save up
to a watt. By turning the screen all the way off, you can save another
0.5 watt (total 1.5 watts for screen). By turning the WiFi chip off,
you can save up to a watt."

John
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Re: Problem running Sugar on openSUSE 11.0

[Jigish Gohil]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 8:49 PM, James Simmons
 wrote:
> Jigish,
>
> I am convinced that my installation of openSUSE 11.1 is messed up and my
> best option is to do a fresh install rather than an upgrade.  David Fanning
> had asked me to do a ./sugar-jhbuild depscheck and the only way I could run
> that was to do a git-clone of sugar-jhbuild first.  When I tried to do that
> I got a message saying that git-clone was not found, yet YAST and rpm -V
> both said that git-core (which YAST showed as containing that command) was
> installed.  The file was definitely missing though.  I'm guessing that

No, new git uses "git clone" instead of "git-clone"

> something similar is happening with python-telepathy.  I also find that
> neither of the DVD burning apps that come with the distro can recognize my
> DVD burner, but I have no trouble mounting DVDs on it.  11.0 also had some
> odd problems that I thought upgrading to 11.1 had fixed, but apparently some
> problems remain.
>

For DVD burning the issue is known, add your user to "disk" group.

> Tonight I'll do the clean install and run your zypper commands again and
> I'll let you know how it went.  Thanks,
>

OK, as I said, running the commands listed on the wiki got sugar
running here. Use sugar-emulator command instead of Xephyr commands I
posted before.

You can always drop in IRC Freenode #sugar if you need help, that
would probably be faster.

Good luck

-J
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes (Carlos Nazareno)

[Sameer Verma]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 5:14 PM, Mitch Bradley  wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  wrote:
>
>> > AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
>> > AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
>> > chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
>> > http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
>>
>
> The cost of developing and supporting a processor family is staggering.
>
> AMD bought the Geode business from another company.  Often, when a company 
> buys a business unit, that unit withers on the vine.  The "new kids on the 
> block" have a difficult time establishing a strong place within the 
> established "pecking order", so in the competition for resources, the new 
> group often comes up short.  When there is an economic downturn, the new 
> group is often the first to go.
>
> AMD barely has the resources to maintain a competitive stance in the part of 
> the market that has traditionally been their core, especially now that the 
> economy is bad.
>
> I'm sure that AMD would be very happy if they had enough money to go after 
> the low power market, but they just don't.
>
>
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>

Somebody on Slashdot (yeah!) has a good write-up pointing to the fact
that AMD isn't halting production. Its just not going to develop Geode
further. http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1105799&cid=26623857

>From the comment:




AMD is NOT halting production of the Geode. They are not leaving the
market (RTFM!). They have decided that it serves it's niche AS IS and
will be kept AS IS. That's a very different statement. They're saying
that it is a mature product (a rare thing in IT).

Currently, the Geode is good enough for many applications and would be
a step up for others. The embedded world tends away from the shiny
object model of upgrades. If it worked last year, it works this year,
and it'll work next year. Changes in the product are considered
undesirable.

AMD's statement doesn't even mean there won't be a die shrink or even
a faster Geode in the future, just that they won't be updating it's
architecture.

It's not a bad decision either. There is a significant niche for the
Geode between the Atom (too hot, too power hungry) and things like the
Dragon Ball and mips (not enough power).

Geode isn't in trouble until Intel comes out with an x86 that doesn't
need a heatsink (or at least doesn't need a fan).



I've seen the Geode in action in Soekris boards
(http://www.soekris.com/) when I was doing fun Wi-Fi stuff, and used
to wonder what it would be like if we had a Geode machine running a
laptop...well that wish came true with the XO :-)

I'll also point out (peripherally) to a comment made by Jeff Bezos in
a BusinessWeek article
(http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081064880218.htm),
where he says that frugality leads to innovation (necessity being the
mother of invention, etc.) and I think the frugality of XO's design
has definitely lead to many innovations. I for one would *not* have
thought that I would be using a 433MHz x86 laptop with 256MB RAM as my
favorite machine :-)

Hats off to the Geode!

cheers,
Sameer
-- 
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
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New staging build 21

[Build Announcer v2]

http://xs-dev.laptop.org/~cscott/xo-1/streams/staging/build21

Changes in build 21 from build: 15

Size delta: 0.00M

-libX11 1.1.4-4.olpc3
+libX11 1.1.4-5.olpc3

--
This mail was automatically generated
See http://dev.laptop.org/~rwh/announcer/staging-pkgs.html for aggregate logs
See http://dev.laptop.org/~rwh/announcer/joyride_vs_update1.html for a 
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XS-0.5.1 is all go.

[Martin Langhoff]

It's a bit of a non-event, the code has been "there" for quite a
while. So I am just making it official: 0.5.1 is the XS image to use.
Grab it at http://xs-dev.laptop.org/xs/

It fixes the issues outlined in

 
https://dev.laptop.org/query?group=milestone&milestone=xs-0.5.1&order=priority&col=id&col=summary&col=type&col=status&col=priority&row=description
-

and it also has a proper embedded checksum so checkisomd5 is happy
(and therefore, mkisomd5 is happy too!).

Fixed the 'upgrade' wikipage, quick brush-up of release notes, and
"latest version" wikibox-thing.

cheers,



m
-- 
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 mar...@laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff  - working code first
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes (Carlos Nazareno)

[John Watlington]

On Jan 27, 2009, at 8:14 PM, Mitch Bradley wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  
>  wrote:
>
>>> AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
>>> AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low- 
>>> power
>>> chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
>>> http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/ 
>>> amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
>>
>
> The cost of developing and supporting a processor family is  
> staggering.
>
> AMD bought the Geode business from another company.  Often, when a  
> company buys a business unit, that unit withers on the vine.  The  
> "new kids on the block" have a difficult time establishing a strong  
> place within the established "pecking order", so in the competition  
> for resources, the new group often comes up short.  When there is  
> an economic downturn, the new group is often the first to go.

Much worse, as AMD bought Geode from National, who had obtained it  
six years earlier through acquiring Cyrix.

wad
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes (Carlos Nazareno)

[Edward Cherlin]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 8:39 PM, Sameer Verma  wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 5:14 PM, Mitch Bradley  wrote:
>> On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Carlos Nazareno  
>> wrote:
>>
>>> > AMD sees no Geode chip replacement in sight
>>> > AMD on Monday said it has no replacement for the aging Geode low-power
>>> > chips that are used in netbooks and set-top boxes.
>>> > http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/article/274414/amd_sees_no_geode_chip_replacement_sight
>>>
>>
>> The cost of developing and supporting a processor family is staggering.
>>
>> AMD bought the Geode business from another company.

National Semiconductor, which bought the line from Cyrix. I edited
several of the pin- and register-level manuals for various chips for
them more than ten years ago, and updates of my work are still online
on the AMD Web site. OLPC has educated AMD on how to use the
power-management registers to do things that nobody previously knew
were possible.

>> Often, when a company buys a business unit, that unit withers on the vine.  
>> The "new kids on the block" have a difficult time establishing a strong 
>> place within the established "pecking order", so in the competition for 
>> resources, the new group often comes up short.  When there is an economic 
>> downturn, the new group is often the first to go.
>>
>> AMD barely has the resources to maintain a competitive stance in the part of 
>> the market that has traditionally been their core, especially now that the 
>> economy is bad.
>>
>> I'm sure that AMD would be very happy if they had enough money to go after 
>> the low power market, but they just don't.

I am delighted that this premature obituary also turns out to be
greatly exaggerated.

>> ___
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>>
>
> Somebody on Slashdot (yeah!) has a good write-up pointing to the fact
> that AMD isn't halting production. Its just not going to develop Geode
> further. http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1105799&cid=26623857
>
> From the comment:
>
>
> 
>
> AMD is NOT halting production of the Geode. They are not leaving the
> market (RTFM!). They have decided that it serves it's niche AS IS and
> will be kept AS IS. That's a very different statement. They're saying
> that it is a mature product (a rare thing in IT).
>
> Currently, the Geode is good enough for many applications and would be
> a step up for others. The embedded world tends away from the shiny
> object model of upgrades. If it worked last year, it works this year,
> and it'll work next year. Changes in the product are considered
> undesirable.
>
> AMD's statement doesn't even mean there won't be a die shrink or even
> a faster Geode in the future, just that they won't be updating it's
> architecture.
>
> It's not a bad decision either. There is a significant niche for the
> Geode between the Atom (too hot, too power hungry) and things like the
> Dragon Ball and mips (not enough power).
>
> Geode isn't in trouble until Intel comes out with an x86 that doesn't
> need a heatsink (or at least doesn't need a fan).
>
> 

Marvell has bought XScale from Intel. That may be the principal
alternative. The Encore Mobilis being bought by Brazil for its schools
uses an XScale processor and MontaVista Linux, so Sugar Labs should be
working on an XScale port of Sugar soon.

> I've seen the Geode in action in Soekris boards
> (http://www.soekris.com/) when I was doing fun Wi-Fi stuff, and used
> to wonder what it would be like if we had a Geode machine running a
> laptop...well that wish came true with the XO :-)
>
> I'll also point out (peripherally) to a comment made by Jeff Bezos in
> a BusinessWeek article
> (http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_17/b4081064880218.htm),
> where he says that frugality leads to innovation (necessity being the
> mother of invention, etc.) and I think the frugality of XO's design
> has definitely lead to many innovations. I for one would *not* have
> thought that I would be using a 433MHz x86 laptop with 256MB RAM as my
> favorite machine :-)

Alan Kay loves to ask how Doug Engelbart and his team managed to
shoehorn all of the Online System (NLS) in The Mother of All Demos
into 192K in 1968.This included realtime videoconferencing and
instantaneous, seamless crash recovery. People come up with all sorts
of technical theories, but Alan's answer is, "Because they wanted to
badly enough."

> Hats off to the Geode!
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
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The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my d

Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes (Carlos Nazareno)

[Edward Cherlin]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 10:32 PM, Edward Cherlin  wrote:

>>> AMD bought the Geode business from another company.
>
> National Semiconductor, which bought the line from Cyrix. I edited
> several of the pin- and register-level manuals for various chips for
> them more than ten years ago,

For National Semiconductor, that is.

-- 
Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai (Ed Cherlin)
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Re: AMD to stop working on Geodes

[Edward Cherlin]

2009/1/27 Benjamin M. Schwartz :
> Carlos Nazareno wrote:
>> Do ARM processors do these things better than anything else on the
>> market right now? but then you lose the X86 compatibility and this
>> probably breaks things for cross-platform upstream contributions for
>> any deved/researched write-once-run-many apps/projects. (correct me if
>> I'm wrong, am just speculating because I'm not a CE and as well-versed
>> with computer architecture)
>
> Sugar has been tested on both x86 and ARM [1].

How about the XScale version of the ARM architecture? Is anybody
working on that? We need it for the Encore Mobilis port, on Montavista
Linux.

It would be hilarious to me if the XO-2 had an XScale processor, and
Microsoft suddenly had to port Windows XP to it in order to stay in th
game. :-Þ

> I expect it would run
> perfectly on MIPS, PPC, SPARC, Itanium, Alpha...  Linux runs on just about
> every major architecture, and I expect the same of just about any
> Linux-based system.

None of the Geode-specific power management code would work, of
course, but that's kernel-level stuff. It doesn't go into the .xo
bundles or the distro-specific packages.

> I'm not too worried about upstream support.  Our Activities are mostly
> written in Python or portable C, and the underlying operating system is
> typically based on Fedora, Debian[2], Gentoo[3]... which already support
> all of the above architectures.
>
> It's true that you lose the ability to run arbitrary binaries from other
> platforms, but this is only important if you care about closed-source
> code.

That means, for us, Flash and drivers. There are Open Source BIOS
equivalents for some of these architectures.

> Most important open source programs are easily recompiled for any
> architecture.
>
> --Ben
>
> [1] http://elinux.org/BeagleBoardSugar
> [2] http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
> [3] http://www.gentoo.org/proj/en/base/index.xml#doc_chap4
>
>
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>



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Silent Thunder (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) is my name
And Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, The Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/User:Mokurai (Ed Cherlin)
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Re: Turning off the mesh to save battery power

[Bryan Berry]

On Tue, 2009-01-27 at 19:26 -0800, John Gilmore wrote:
> > hey guys, here in Nepal we are deciding whether or not to turn off the
> > mesh on our custom XO build in order to save power. We will leave on
> > regular wifi. 
> > 
> > Any ideas on how much power we will actually save? An extra hour of
> > battery life would be worth it
> 
> (1) Try it and see, that's probably the easiest way.  Every laptop has
> an instrument in the battery that you can measure its power draw with.
> See:
> 
>   http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_power_draw

Thanks gnu, this is really helpful

-- 
Bryan W. Berry
Technology Director
OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org

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Re: Notes from an impromptu 8.2.1 Release Mtg.

[John Watlington]

We are definitely recommending that they stop using MPP
mode (at least an automatic one.)

On Jan 23, 2009, at 7:11 AM, Martin Langhoff wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 8:44 PM, Michael Stone   
> wrote:
>>   http://dev.laptop.org/report/38
>
> A quick side-note here - reviewing the bugs listed there, I see we
> have a fix for dnsmasq in MPP mode, presumably for Uy.
>
> Are we recommending Uy that they stop using MPP mode?
>
> I think that there is fairly good consensus on that matter -- the
> reports of very bad RF saturation have been diagnosed to be cause by
> _all_ the laptops being in MPP mode. The RF saturation problems block
> any connectivity that you could hope to extend via MPP...
>
> 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
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