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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Elias Probstreplied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ: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 đˇ: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 đˇ: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.
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Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to Christoph Derndorfer-Medosch last edited by
@random_musings @eliasp The OLPC is quite tolerant of input power in my experience. We powered them with old car batteries that delivered anything from 11 to 15V with no problem.
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Eduardo Mercovich (Êl)replied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange: last edited by
Hi @jwildeboer
This sounds super interesting. I'm interested in something like this for @confluencia , our intentional community.
Can you point me to some documentation you believe specially useful or inspiring?
Many thanks... -
Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to Eduardo Mercovich (Êl) last edited by
@edumerco @confluencia unfortunately not a lot besides https://wiki.laptop.org/go/Wireless_repeater is publicly available.
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Kehvarlreplied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange: last edited by
I wanted some of these so badly. They seemed ideal for collaborating with my dnd group in public places. The transflexive/pixel-qi display is still something I depserately want for a basic productivity device. I wonder where I could source a handful of working or repairable OLPCs.
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Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to Kehvarl last edited by
@Kehvarl Don't steal them from my 10+ collection of working ones
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Matt Panaroreplied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer I'd always assumed mesh-networking was way lower-bandwidth than the alternatives: and that's why it never globally caught on?
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Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to Matt Panaro last edited by [email protected]
@eigen It was a political fight. Mesh networking in countries where mobile networks wanted to make money? Oh no! Not acceptable. Bandwidth for text and voice communication is negligible, even today. And mesh means very cheap to no infrastructure. Given enough nodes. Which can be cheap, solar powered repeaters instead of expensive stations with antennas and surveillance possibilities
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nullr0utereplied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer I have a lot to say about OLPC but probably won't do it publicly TBH
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@nullr0ute @jwildeboer It would still be prudent to write up the thoughts up, in case you change you mind one day.
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Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to Riku Voipio last edited by
@suihkulokki @nullr0ute There are many, many pages, videos, articles out there since many years that focus on all the mistakes made (there were plenty).
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nullr0utereplied to Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange: last edited by
@jwildeboer @suihkulokki there's also nothing that really covers the internal back stabbing and undermining of each other that was ultimately what resulted in the destruction of the organisation
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Jan Wildeboer đˇ:krulorange:replied to nullr0ute last edited by
@nullr0ute And you should write that down at some point in time, IMHO. But in a new thread @suihkulokki