A story I could write: an alternative timeline where the #OLPC (One Laptop Per Child AKA as the 100 dollar laptop) became the global default for education and created, with its mesh network, a decentralised approach to a true Internet Of People.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:wrote last edited by [email protected]
A story I could write: an alternative timeline where the #OLPC (One Laptop Per Child AKA as the 100 dollar laptop) became the global default for education and created, with its mesh network, a decentralised approach to a true Internet Of People. A future built on connecting people. Where sharing brought progress. It can still be done. Iโm convinced of that. And I continue to work on motivating many more to get to that future Those OLPC pictures are recent! They work and I use them
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
Thereโs a whole dystopian series hidden in the way mesh networking was destroyed by lobbyism and money, BTW. We had mesh networking in low cost hardware with the OLPC. A way to create local networking and communication without any possibility of centralised control and surveillance. Which is why it had to die, IMHO.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
The 88W8xxx Marvell chip series from the Libertas series was also in the Xbox. Ready Player One goes OLPC. Fascinating possibilities that were never used โฆ
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
We had mesh repeater nodes with solar cells that could ultimately be produced at less than $10 a piece. With hooks that allowed you to walk around and throw them up in trees to extend the mesh.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by [email protected]
So many people are working on recreating what we almost had not that long ago. Because we ignore the past is what I sometimes think. But I refuse to go down that road. I will never say โwe tried that and failedโ. I will always say โsounds familiar. I want to helpโ
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
Iโll stop here. Thereโs a positive way to move forward. But right now Iโm struck by the negativity we had to deal with after we showed a better way. As I said. I could write a story on what could have been that allows yโall to just do it
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
Iโll end this thread with something I see fit. Those that know, know
โI've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhรคuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.โ
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Lien Ragreplied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
The OLPC was an interesting initiative, and in a way it succeeded (it created the eePC, which ironically killed it), but I'm not sure that it could ever work considering how they were unable to reach the price level that would have made a real difference in the market...
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Lien Rag last edited by
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Lien Ragreplied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
I wasn't aware of the mesh networking part, and indeed that's interesting.
But why didn't they reach the 100$ goal (and AFAIK they completely abandoned the idea that it was possible) if it was "never a fantasy" ? -
Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
I still have the solar panels that can charge an OLPC that I got from one of my visits to the โpalaceโ in Brussels that the SWIFT cooperative paid for back in the days. So. Many. Stories. To. Tell.
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JohnnyThanreplied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer Do you have a good resource to read about what happened? I did find that project fascinating and very good. But then it somehow went away...
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to JohnnyThan last edited by
@JohnnyThan No. Thatโs the problem. Many stories out there paint it as a failure. But the true story of how Open Source stepped up, how Red Hat and the community relentlessly moved it forward โ that story remains untold.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
I still wonder at times what happened to Giulia dโAmico. She was such a wonderful representative of OLPC.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Lien Rag last edited by [email protected]
@lienrag because ego (of Nicholas Negroponte) and a changing world. The concept never was a 100$ laptop for consumers. It always was about convincing governments to buy millions of OLPC AND creating a country wide, open source based way of creating and distributing school books in a digital way. That centralised aspect didnโt go down well with established publishers of school books.
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Elias Probstreplied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer loved them! Ordered 4 of them back then - 2 for the family, 2 for recipients in need selected by the project.
They were in use for many years. Just half a year ago or so I tried to ressurect one of them, but the lack of modern TLS on them and a failing power supply gave me a hard time.
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Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange:replied to Elias Probst last edited by
@eliasp I got a bunch of OLPC from @random_musings who updated them to the newest OS/apps and might be able to share the HOWTO.
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Christoph Derndorfer-Medoschreplied to Jan Wildeboer ๐ท:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer @eliasp Have you gone through the troubleshooting guide at wiki.laptop.org? That's a good place to get started. https://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO_Troubleshooting_Guide
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Elias Probstreplied to Christoph Derndorfer-Medosch last edited by
@random_musings I haven't! Didn't have much time back then, but might give it another try now and will see if I can solder the power supply, since only very specific ones seem to properly work, so keeping the current one might be worth it.
Thanks a lot for the pointers! -
Christoph Derndorfer-Medoschreplied to Elias Probst last edited by
@eliasp @jwildeboer I can't find the link on my phone now, but on the wiki there's also information about the specific power plug (it's a fairly odd one) and supported input voltage range. I seem to remember people slicing the power plugs off broken power bricks and soldering them on to variable voltage laptop bricks. So, that might also be an option for you.