Comments on: Most Governments won't buy OLPC - will you? http://www.thinkflowinteractive.com/2007/11/04/most-governments-wont-buy-olpc-will-you/ News and ideas on user experience. Thu, 15 Sep 2011 15:36:34 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Thibault http://www.thinkflowinteractive.com/2007/11/04/most-governments-wont-buy-olpc-will-you/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Thibault Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:36:45 +0000 http://fronttoback.org/2007/11/05/most-governments-wont-buy-olpc-will-you/#comment-58 Hi, this is a great point of view. I also look forward to this XO. I’m currently trying to work with a emulator and of course that’s not the way to do it. You need the machine. But Sugar is very refreshing and inspiring. This "Fisher Price" computer is currently tested in France and so far they are not impressed. It's not really surprising but might jeopardize the success of the XO if more people think the same way. However the XO do not have to impress. It has to be used. And how it's going to be used - well and with numbers - remain to be seen. I'm very pleased they've included Logo and you can learn Python on it. Maybe "Scratch" will works too. When you learn Logo and/or Python you really start to understand mathematics. You really empower yourself. That's not just like learning Visual Basic macro and/or Microsoft Word/Excel. One thing which bother me is developing applications for the XO is somewhat too difficult. And it's something the community should care about because if a teacher cannot program the XO him/herself something will be missing. They will not be able to adapt the tool to their teaching environment. You cannot always rely on third party applications. And if you do, you should be able to modify them in a way or another. In theory you can because you always got the source code. In practice I think it will be too difficult. I understand this XO as a learning tool, not a computer. The screen seems great. It’s confusing for a developer because of its 3 modes but nonetheless very impressing. Being able to read a book on it must be at least doable because of the high resolution (200 dpi). Last thing is about the hardware. This machine doesn’t seems to be powerful enough. In computer science history is showing us you need power, full stop. They need to put something more powerful inside. I don’t know how they can do it and keeping the price down. But this is not as revolutionary as the MacIntosh 128Ko with 800Ko floppy disk so they don’t have the luxury to be under-powered. It’s just a learning machine which need users (teachers and students). So it needs to go faster. And it needs to be able to store more because you cannot rely on the network all the time yet. As a developer I still want one to test with my kids. Hi, this is a great point of view.
I also look forward to this XO.
I’m currently trying to work with a emulator and of course that’s not the way to do it. You need the machine. But Sugar is very refreshing and inspiring.
This "Fisher Price" computer is currently tested in France and so far they are not impressed. It's not really surprising but might jeopardize the success of the XO if more people think the same way.
However the XO do not have to impress. It has to be used.
And how it's going to be used - well and with numbers - remain to be seen.

I'm very pleased they've included Logo and you can learn Python on it.
Maybe "Scratch" will works too.
When you learn Logo and/or Python you really start to understand mathematics. You really empower yourself. That's not just like learning Visual Basic macro and/or Microsoft Word/Excel.

One thing which bother me is developing applications for the XO is somewhat too difficult.
And it's something the community should care about because if a teacher cannot program the XO him/herself something will be missing. They will not be able to adapt the tool to their teaching environment. You cannot always rely on third party applications. And if you do, you should be able to modify them in a way or another. In theory you can because you always got the source code. In practice I think it will be too difficult.
I understand this XO as a learning tool, not a computer.

The screen seems great. It’s confusing for a developer because of its 3 modes but nonetheless very impressing.
Being able to read a book on it must be at least doable because of the high resolution (200 dpi).

Last thing is about the hardware. This machine doesn’t seems to be powerful enough. In computer science history is showing us you need power, full stop.
They need to put something more powerful inside. I don’t know how they can do it and keeping the price down. But this is not as revolutionary as the MacIntosh 128Ko with 800Ko floppy disk so they don’t have the luxury to be under-powered. It’s just a learning machine which need users (teachers and students). So it needs to go faster. And it needs to be able to store more because you cannot rely on the network all the time yet.

As a developer I still want one to test with my kids.

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