Re: New lurker! :-)
Hi. Recently saw an OLPC computer at Ontario Linux Fest, courtesy of a great presentation by Michael C. Fletcher. He suggested a brief self-intro as protocol for joining the list, etc. Here goes: Canadian high school teacher, record can be found here: http://www.oct.ca/PublicRegister/memberDetails.aspx?memberID=164928 Have contributed to a few open source projects, such as Tuxpaint (e.g. some graphics, Unicode file for Thai input, Ojibway language file, etc.) Have translated from French to English two 15,20 page articles about how to write a GUI in Python for Blender Link on Blender site: http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/tutorials/specials/ (e.g. First steps with Python) First article: http://feeblemind.tuxfamily.org/dotclear/index.php/2006/03/03/55-blender-first-steps-with-python Second article: http://feeblemind.tuxfamily.org/dotclear/index.php/2006/03/20/58-blender-creating-a-gui-for-your-python-scripts I even understood the articles! :-) (I wrote a couple of simple example scripts to make pyramids and tetrahedrons, if you are interested...:-)) I'm interested in education problems (duh! :-)), and perhaps delving into some of the python code...but I'm going to just lurk for awhile and if I see something that I think I can contribute to, I'll jump in. Or feel free to suggest something. As for time commitment, at the moment I am moving to Japan, but I will try to spend some time getting up to speed. I use a laptop with Ubuntu 6.06 LTS at the moment, and python 2.4/2.5 installed. Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=listsid=396545469 ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Language lurker! :-)
Language lurker here... For those who might not be familiar with it, may I mention having a look at the children's paint program, Tuxpaint at tuxpaint.org. They have been developing the program for several years, and it has been translated into over 70 languages at the moment, using the .pot .po system. One might find some help/suggestions, etc. there: http://tuxpaint.org/features/ ET In response to Xavier Alvarez' request on 10/25 for ET translators and coordinators, I decided to get off the ET sidelines and take a look at OLPC's new Pootle-based L10N ET infrastructure. ET ET Here are a few things I noticed which I think will be of ET general interest and concern: ET ET (0) CASING/NAMING OF PO FILES PROBLEM: The 'rule' is quite simple (but not necessarily as intuitive as may be expected): given that we are bundling several d.l.o projects into pootle-projects, we need to ensure (or at least minimize the possibility) of having 2 POT files with the same name. Solution? We prefix whatever filename used for the POT in d.l.o with the name of its project... journal-activity.Journal.po --dlo-project-.filename Thus, any 'inconsistencies' are really product of other inconsistencies... they just happen to be more evident (and ugly) within Pootle. ET ET (Upper/Lower) Casing of names of po files is ET inconsistent: For example, in Core there is ET journal-activity.Journal.po with upper case J for ET the 2nd occurrence of Journal but then why isn't ET write.write.po written write.Write.po? ET ET This is a small point, but consistent and inuitive ET naming of these PO files will help everyone. Or am I just ET failing to understand or intuit what the pattern is supposed ET to be here? ET ET (1) INCONSISTENT NUMBER OF MSGIDs ACROSS DIFFERENT ET LANGUAGES: Yes and no. The numbers shown in the statistics do not represent quantity of MSGIDs but WORDS in the file. So I presume that for untranslated strings it takes the MSGID words, and for translated strings, the MSGSTR. Thus two languages with all things translated and upto date, may still show different numbers (although conceptually they are the same). BTW, it does show the number of strings in other 'statistic levels'. Yes, I was quite baffled too... translators are more worried about the word-count than 'lines of code'... ;) In http://solar.laptop.org:5080/projects/xo_core/ Language Trans. Fuzzy Untrans. Total Portuguese (Brazil) 162 42% 4 1% 213 56% 379 Spanish 219 62% 0 0% 132 37% 351 While in each language+project [pt_BR] 8 files, 162/379 words (42%) translated [118/247 strings] [es] 8 files, 219/351 words (62%) translated [157/234 strings] Note that even Still, there's a difference with the number of strings... see below. ET ETThe other day when I looked at write.write.po for ET French, there were only 10 messages in the catalog. Today, I ET see that there are 36 messages which looks a lot closer to ET what I myself get from xgettext toolbar.py on the === message truncated === __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Clocks, calendars and time ;-)
Ah, forgive me for butting in once again...;-) I just gotta say I love these discussions you're having. Apparently the wikipedia clock/stopwatch articles weren't enough...ok, try this for today's date and time: http://www.ecben.net/calendar.shtml You both have valid points, there is no right or wrong. Write your clock as you wish, and others will write other kinds of clocks...i.e. you are both right. By the way, I'm in Japan at the moment, and I had to fill out an application for a fellowship. Apparently, the correct answer here to Year when filling in the date of application is 19, as in Heisei 19, NOT 2007...:-) (P.S. Woops, hit that Send button too fast before changing the subject...sigh...;-)) Bert Freudenberg writes: I question the very assumption that continuously telling the time is even remotely important on a learning machine for kids in elementary school age. Dealing with time is a critical life skill that must be learned. Having a clock is thus very important. Whose time? Hours minutes seconds? Days since a recent feast? When the sun is at a certain position in the sky? Since I last saw you on the road? How much do I quantize? Is quantization of time even a concept I am familiar with? The notion of time is _highly_ contingent on situated cultural factors. Just because in the West we measure things using hours, minutes, and seconds, does not mean that the entire world does so. In fact, our conception of time is directly related to churches and clock towers in the middle ages (see Lewis Mumford on this idea) first, and then assembly lines and educational/disciplinary institutions (see Foucault) . The rest of the world has not necessarily adopted our way of dividing days into ever smaller chunks---perhaps there is no quantization at all! A clock application, especially given the areas of deployment, is _not_ something you rush into with the assumption that you can merely write a graphic display of 00:00:00. One must understand the local conditions to know how time is told _on the ground_ and be careful to not impose a Western notion of quantization and temporal division that might be entirely foreign. nick knouf Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Devel Digest, Vol 21, Issue 38
Ah, forgive me for butting in once again...;-) I just gotta say I love these discussions you're having. Apparently the wikipedia clock/stopwatch articles weren't enough...ok, try this for today's date and time: http://www.ecben.net/calendar.shtml You both have valid points, there is no right or wrong. Write your clock as you wish, and others will write other kinds of clocks...i.e. you are both right. By the way, I'm in Japan at the moment, and I had to fill out an application for a fellowship. Apparently, the correct answer here to Year when filling in the date of application is 19, as in Heisei 19, NOT 2007...:-) Bert Freudenberg writes: I question the very assumption that continuously telling the time is even remotely important on a learning machine for kids in elementary school age. Dealing with time is a critical life skill that must be learned. Having a clock is thus very important. Whose time? Hours minutes seconds? Days since a recent feast? When the sun is at a certain position in the sky? Since I last saw you on the road? How much do I quantize? Is quantization of time even a concept I am familiar with? The notion of time is _highly_ contingent on situated cultural factors. Just because in the West we measure things using hours, minutes, and seconds, does not mean that the entire world does so. In fact, our conception of time is directly related to churches and clock towers in the middle ages (see Lewis Mumford on this idea) first, and then assembly lines and educational/disciplinary institutions (see Foucault) . The rest of the world has not necessarily adopted our way of dividing days into ever smaller chunks---perhaps there is no quantization at all! A clock application, especially given the areas of deployment, is _not_ something you rush into with the assumption that you can merely write a graphic display of 00:00:00. One must understand the local conditions to know how time is told _on the ground_ and be careful to not impose a Western notion of quantization and temporal division that might be entirely foreign. nick knouf Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Egads! :-)
treating it as a thin client, to address those in some countries who may feel it is important to have children learn ms office and windows for employment purposes? Schools should be teaching the concept of word processing not a specific word processor but that is as far as I will go with throwing tomatoes. Sigh...well, it was only a matter of time, I guess, before an M$ troll would show up. Children should NOT be learning 'M$' ANYTHING! for 'employment purposes'. This is an education project, not an employment project. As a teacher, I am much, much more in tune with teaching concepts, such as word processing, etc., rather than a product of a corrupt megacorporation. (and if you want lots and lots of evidence, references, etc. for that, please feel free to email me and/or visit my blog at cdneducation.blogspot.com). And $3 per user is too much. $2 per user is too much. $1 per user is too much. Sense a pattern here? ;-). Free, with source code would be ideal. Does M$ have that? No? Does M$ support the four freedoms? No? Well, then M$ doesn't fit the spec. Too bad. Bye-bye. (And sorry for the rant everyone. This is a developers conference, and it is evident that the M$ poster doesn't understand what that means. As mentioned, any poster who wants to discuss education, philosophy, etc. email me personally, and stop cluttering up a dev conference with such drivel. My apologies to all here.) /end rant ;-) Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Sorry, quickie example
Just a couple of quick examples, if you care about kids, and you care about their education, etc., then supporting M$ in any way, shape, or form, is not the way to go: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gatesx07jan07,0,6827615.story http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-berkshire4may04,0,6075683.story Development under linux is thus, far, far more preferable, and the project would be ruined using MS office or anything else related. Be a better sports nut! Let your teams follow you with Yahoo Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/sports;_ylt=At9_qDKvtAbMuh1G1SQtBI7ntAcJ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Commodore Emulators
[Same goes for C64 emulators... there are still folks in chemistry and biology and physics who have useful code that runs on the Commodore machines.. even at Big 10 universities. ;)] I have found this to be an EXCELLENT commodore machines emulator, which I've run on several linux distros :-) Shouldn't be too tough to port, if that is even necessary. Have fun! http://www.viceteam.org/ Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: languages et al.
Fascinating, as Spock would say...:-) I taught for two years in a small town called Haenam, in South Korea, and two years in Japan on Jet program (currently just wandering around Japan :-)), and likewise studied a few languages in university, etc., having always been fascinated by them. (Kanji holds a particular fascination for me, for some unknown reason.) I can communicate well enough, I suppose in three languages, (but of course, language learning is a lifelong process, eh? (eh=famous Canadian emphatic particle :-)) The really scary people are like James Platt (who, unfortunately is no longer with us), on the OED team, who was famously quoted as saying: consulted linguistic advisers, such as James Platt who knew scores of languages and once famously declared that the first twelve tongues were always the most difficult, but having mastered them, the following hundred should not pose too much of a problem. Yikes! :-) Quoted from here, by the way, for those interested: http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0198607024/ref=sib_dp_pt/105-9251581-449#reader-link Anyways, I have placed at the following link, a first attempt at a first draft (?!!), a French translation of a first draft of an English manual of the XO. I'd appreciate corrections, etc., as well as an image of the XO without the English phrases on it. (Yes, I could use the gimp and wipe out and add the French, etc. but it would be easier, more elegant and save time if I could just have the original photo.) Also, I have no idea what is going on with page 10. Suggestions, recommendations, etc. are welcome. http://languageknowledge.googlepages.com/xodocv2-fr5.pdf Ed, you and I are rather similar in our language and keyboard usage. I have studied several languages, and have lived in Korea (Peace Corps) and Japan (Buddhist training). I use Ubuntu with the Gnome keyboard switcher and SCIM. I have worked on documents in English, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean together, and on single-language documents in French, German, Russian, Ukrainian, Armenian, Georgian, Greek, Yiddish, and other languages. Not that I speak all of those languages, but I can type and proofread to some extent, handle character set conversions, and a little of this and that besides. French accents on an English International keyboard are added with the Compose key. So Compose-`-e gives ? Compose-,-c gives ? and so on. The KDE and Gnome keyboard switchers let the user set the Compose key to be right ALT (AltGr), right CTL, either Win key, the Menu key, or Caps Lock. AltGr is the default for the XO, but I use Menu on Ubuntu. I'll add a version of this to the Wiki page on Keyboards. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Childsplay
Sorry for the dupe. I'm always forgetting to change the subject...sigh...:-) Just a quick suggestion/idea: I note that Gcompris is being worked on, but I did not see a reference to Childsplay anywhere, so I'd like to throw this out there. I think all the Childsplay activities could be ported to sugar relatively easily. The programs are in Python, use .ogg and .png files, etc., can already be downloaded and installed from repositories if you wish to take a look, and already use the .po system for languages, etc. http://www.happypenguin.org/show?Childsplay Be a better pen pal. Text or chat with friends inside Yahoo! Mail. See how. http://overview.mail.yahoo.com/ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: .xo archive?
I'm wondering if there is a 'master' archive/directory/list of ALL .xo packages? I've been looking, and have found SOME on source code list, others on a packaging list, etc. So, for example, I've wandered amongst several lists/sites looking for a tamtam.xo, but so far, all I have found is source for various parts. Can anyone suggest a link for a 'master' .xo package list/wiki/directory/whatever? Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Someone didn't get the memo...;-)
Message: 2 Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:27:54 -0500 From: John Richard Moser [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: Oprofile, swap To: Ivan Krsti? [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 (Note: most of this message isn't very useful probably; it's about theoretical software architecture, that nobody's going to implement, that I can't prove, that I'm not really 100% sure about. Still, if you WANT to read it, hey... remember, bad ideas sometimes get corrected by people who are smart enough to turn them into GOOD ideas) You are absolutely correct...this message isn't very useful, period. When you can post or link to complete open source code, please do so. Otherwise, you are wasting bandwidth on this list. I don't speak for anyone other than myself, of course, but I am not remotely interested in anything that is NOT open source. Perhaps you could start a closed source list of some sort to post your theories, and other like minded souls can pontificate on the wonders of closed source software. Good luck. This is an open education project, not a closed, secret, keep people ignorant project. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Printing et al.
Having been a computer teacher for several years, I set up a network printer for those teachers who requested it, (but it was a CONSTANT hassle, from paper jam problems, to misconfiguration, toner cartridges, etc. I got around the problem by handing off the problems to windows techs, which left me to the paradise of just running a linux lab ;-)). In the meantime, I went paperless...:-) My students were required to place all of their work on websites/web pages. Then it was always available, never lost, shown to other students, parents, teachers, etc. at any time! ;-) (And optionally, could be placed on the worldwide web, as opposed to just a school network/server, if one really wanted to 'display' work, etc.) ;-) A much better solution, I found. :-) Heartily recommended, as opposed to the archaic method of printing out reams of paper, multiplied by millions of students/teachers/parents, at considerable cost to the environment, etc. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Protecting children
Glad you brought up this point. I have been somewhat concerned about the child security of this project (but I just may not know). As a computer teacher for many years, I have seen several cases of students who have been negatively affected by their contacts and activities on the net. I'd be happy to be involved in a site for teachers (and/or developers, etc.) who are interested in child security issues, etc. For example, you (or any member of the public) can verify my teaching record on this Canadian government website: http://www.oct.ca/PublicRegister/memberDetails.aspx?memberID=164928 (Feel free to contact me or oct.ca to verify, etc.) I.e., you really do need to know whom you are dealing with. I assume the U.S. has a similar system? In any case, I'll be happy to volunteer to look after a teacher/developer whatever website in child security issues, etc. Sincerely, Ed Montgomery In fact, I think we need a Social Networking Web site specifically for the children, protected from adults who might want to interfere or exploit children. And a site for teachers, parents, and other interested parties. Would anybody here like to help create such sites? I think we (I) need a network of teachers that can respond to software developer questions. Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: passwords, etc.
Regarding the note about the 'paranoid' password filtering, etc. Changing passwords as root does not involve any of the 'too short', 'too similar', etc. problems mentioned. Root, being god-like, can change any password to anything. For regular users, it is an education about password security! :-) (Since, in my experience, they always ask me 'why?' ;-)). However, if it really, really bothers you, then why not simply remove the filtering from the source code, recompile, and call it, oh, I don't know, perhaps something like 'spasswd' for 'simple password', and then you can customize it, avoid problems mentioned, etc. I.e., Use the source, Luke! Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now. http://mobile.yahoo.com/;_ylt=Ahu06i62sR8HDtDypao8Wcj9tAcJ ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: 'development' et al.
Re: see quoted below, etc. Ah, kids these days...young whippersnappers...;-) How about doing some work on DSLinux? ;-) (i.e. linux for the Nintendo DS...about 4 megs ram to work with, etc.) Now THERE'S a challenge! :-) You should be whipping bits around at light speed with 256 megs available...:-) I maintain a linux distro based on uclibc with strictly static linking, no shared libs at all. It's primary dev home has 128MB and a Transmeta Crusoe at 660MHz. It's using 2.1GB of it's 4GB disk, but that includes the complete sources for the 355 packages it includes, ranging up to biggies like a few different kernels, gcc, and the like. And shared libs save space, too. Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: Alternative power/recharging source?
Came across this rather amazing item the other day, and instantly thought this might be a very, very useful power/recharging mechanism for the XO... A lamp powered by gravity producing 40 watts over 4 hours...using gravity! :-) (Consider the XO using about 2 watts...) Not affected by weather/season/time of day (e.g. solar/wind) or behaviour (animal/cow) or location, etc. An unlimited power source available anywhere anytime! Could this mechanism (which apparently is more durable than the LEDs in the lamp!) be modified to power and/or recharge the XO batteries, etc.? A preliminary article about the gravity lamp can be found here (from Virginia Tech): http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2008itemno=111 Looking for last minute shopping deals? Find them fast with Yahoo! Search. http://tools.search.yahoo.com/newsearch/category.php?category=shopping ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Re: New long range router! :-)
I'm wondering if the OLPC has become aware of a new long-range wi-fi router, reported in MIT review. Apparently, gives 6Mps for at least 60 miles! Could be very useful in some remote areas. http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20432/ Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your home page. http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs ___ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
