blogXO

‘Lil XO in Ghana

julieG — Tue, 05 May 2009 21:36:00 +0000

Maryanne has just returned from Ghana and has sent a group picture with the already totally loved OLPCs in hand. These are orphaned children living in the Western Heritage Children’s Home. The adults are staff designated as the OLPCs “guest/staff”. That way, educators and others can come to the Children’s Home, try them out with the help of the children, etc., and also staff can learn them and improve their own skills. There is a lot of interest on the part of the teachers in town, and others too and this is a great place for them to come and “see the goods.” The cook and cleaner (back row) are pretty much non-English and non-literate, so they are learning along with the children. They in turn share that with the youngest children.

XO getting ready for Ghana

julieG — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:08:27 +0000

Maryanne Ward, president of Ghana Together, recently sent me photos of her team getting the donated XOs ready for the trip to Ghana. I want to share them. It is wonderful how many were donated!

Joan ‘Lil XO

Joan — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:24:03 +0000

Like Julie, I have not been using my Lil XO as much as it deserves to be used. So, I, too, am passing mine on. I am giving mine to a family with four little kids, who love to play with it. Their mom is a computer tech, and they just don’t have enough computers at home to keep all of the little kids happy. At first, the mom wanted to use Lil XO to give a specific test to kids in a small rural and very isolated school. I made her promise me that she would not use Lil XO for tests - only for kids’ free discovery and play. I know those little kids will learn more just playing with it than they ever could from any test. Two of the kids, who are Pre-K, were able to do more than I within the first week!

XO on its way to Ghana

julieG — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:59:49 +0000

It was great fun setting up and using the XO. However I haven’t been using it much lately and felt bad that it was spending most of its time locked in a drawer. I went searching for an organization to donate it to and found it at the OLPC web site: Ghana Together. I am sending the XO via UPS on its new adventrue. It leaves today for the Ghana Together Headquaters. I am happy that it will be used by children and won’t be neglected any longer.

Desperate in Santa Fe

Joan — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 01:51:33 +0000

The grands and I are trying to access the wifi with our ‘Lil XO- unsuccessfully. Toni, we were able to see your video, pictures, and audio. Thank you. We immediately did the same thing, and now we have some silly pix of us. However, I’m now going back to re-read all of our blog sharing, but I still can’t get our little baby to connect. We’ve tried Opera.

Thanks.

The Benefactors

toni — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:45:42 +0000

Greetings! I’m happy to say that the Vance Household, located on the lovely prairies of South Dakota, is graciously hosting Joan’s Lil’ XO. To Joan for so graciously allowing us the opportunity to experience Lil’ XO, a BIG THANKS. I myself, could not believe our good fortune when Joan called and offered me the opportunity to give the XO a test run. I’ld been following the XO since Negroponte first started dreaming. I’m the Network Administrator in the local k-12 school district and always itching to get my hands on anything new. I am totally in love with the design, the compact sturdy case with the built in handle, light weight (yet rugged), and the little feelers, as my kids refer to the antennas. Plus, I have been very impressed with the screen, especially in natural light. I was also pleased with how easily it jumped on our home wifi. However, my big clumsy hands are having a most difficult time getting comfy on the keyboard–perhaps I’m to old to learn. But, my 6 & 8 year old are in love, or at least infatuation, with Lil’ XO-there will be some heartache when Lil’ XO goes home.

Install SeaMonkey not Firefox

julieG — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 22:15:51 +0000

While FireFox is better than Opera it has odd problems. I decided to install SeaMonkey. I’ve been using it and am much happier with its interface.

To install SeaMonkey involves 4 steps:

tell ‘Lil XO it is okay to install SeaMonkey
install SeaMonkey
make SeaMonkey java aware (you won’t need to do this if you made Firefox java aware)
have SeaMonkey show up on the Activity bar

Let’s do it!

To tell ‘Lil XO it is okay to install SeaMonkey do:

open Terminal Activity
type su -
type cd /etc/yum.repos.d
type nano olpc-koji-ship2.repo
the above command starts the nano editor. Arrow to the exclude line.
erase seamonkey and the comma from the list
hold down the ctrl key and tap the X key
type Y for yes

To install SeaMonkey do:

in the Terminal Activity
type yum install seamonkey
just follow the instructions

To make SeaMonkey java aware do (you don’t need to do this if you made Firefox java aware):

in the Terminal Activity
type (all on one line) cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
type (all on one line) ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_05/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
the jdk1.6.0_05 must match the name you made note of in installing java
if you’ve forgotten the jdk name: type ls /usr/java
test SeaMonkey by visiting International Children’s Digital Library. The page should load very quickly.

To have a SeaMonkey icon show on the Activity Panel do:

in Terminal Activity (you should still be su)
type wget http://www.catmoran.com/olpc/libsugarize.so
type chmod 755 libsugarize.so
type wget http://www.catmoran.com/olpc/sug
type chmod 755 sug
type wget ftp://www.cs.csustan.edu/pub/xo/sm.svg
type sh sug
type seamonkey when asked for an activity name
type sm.svg when asked for an icon file
type seamonkey when asked for a command
type org.mozilla when asked for an organization path
if everything went okay you will get a success message
restart sugar by holding down the ctrl key and tapping the alt & erase keys
look for the SM icon on the Activity bar

The instructions for “sugarizing” an activity came from this web page How-to create a “stub/shortcut/launcher” Activity.

Installing Evince

julieG — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:18:02 +0000

Evince is a pdf reader that works well for me in Firefox. Installation is just 2 steps and Firefox uses Evince as its default pdf reader. To install Evince do:

go to Terminal Activity
type su -
type yum install evince
type exit

That’s it!

Installing Firefox

julieG — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:47:34 +0000

While Opera is a nice upgrade from the installed browser on ‘Lil XO I haven’t found it all that fun to use. The various menus are in tiny fonts and some settings don’t seem to stick after I’ve made changes. I decided to install Firefox. I’ve been using it and am much happier with its interface.

To install Firefox involves 4 steps:

tell ‘Lil XO it is okay to install Firefox
install Firefox
make Firefox java aware
have Firefox show up on the Activity bar

Let’s do it!

To tell ‘Lil XO it is okay to install Firefox do:

open Terminal Activity
type su -
type cd /etc/yum.repos.d
type nano olpc-koji-ship2.repo
the above command starts the nano editor. Arrow to the exclude line.
erase firefox and the comma from the list
hold down the ctrl key and tap the X key
type Y for yes

To install Firefox do:

in the Terminal Activity
type yum install firefox
just follow the instructions

To make Firefox java aware do:

in the Terminal Activity
type (all on one line) cd /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins
type (all on one line) ln -s /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_05/jre/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so
the jdk1.6.0_05 must match the name you made note of in installing java
if you’ve forgotten the jdk name: type ls /usr/java
test Firefox by visiting International Children’s Digital Library. The page should load very quickly.

To have a Firefox icon show on the Activity Panel do:

in Terminal Activity (you should still be su)
type wget http://www.catmoran.com/olpc/libsugarize.so
type chmod 755 libsugarize.so
type wget http://www.catmoran.com/olpc/sug
type chmod 755 sug
type wget http://www.catmoran.com/olpc/ff.svg
type sh sug
type firefox when asked for an activity name
type ff.svg when asked for an icon file
type firefox when asked for a command
type org.mozilla when asked for an organization path
if everything went okay you will get a success message
restart sugar by holding down the ctrl key and tapping the alt & erase keys
look for the FF icon on the Activity bar

The instructions for “sugarizing” an activity came from this web page How-to create a “stub/shortcut/launcher” Activity.

Installing Java

julieG — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 20:49:52 +0000

I’ve been trying out ‘Lil XO as an ebook reader. To test ebook reading I’ve been searching for interesting ebook sites. Many ebooks are available in pdf form and can be downloaded but in my research I came across this interesting digital library site International Children’s Digital Library. ‘Lil XO had a difficult time loading the web page so I decided it was time to install Java as it was obvious the site was using java scripts. Once I installed java and set the preferences in Opera to use java the site opened up just fine.

To install java and have it work correctly with Opera takes 3 discreet steps:

getting the current java software from Sun
installing the java software
configuring Opera to use the java software

Let’s do it!

To get the java software from Sun

visit the Sun Java web page http://java.sun.com
in the Popular Downloads box click on Java SE
click on the Download box next to JDK 6 Update
click the circle next to Accept License Agreement
click on the Linux RPM in self-extracting file link
click the Save button
choose /home/olpc as the directory for saving
click save again
be patient

To install the Java software do:

go to the Terminal Activity (of course :-))
in the Terminal type su -
type cd /home/olpc (this is where the java software was saved)
type chmod u+x jdk* (the * is so you don’t have to type the entire file name)
type ./jdk*
follow the instructions

Skip this next step if you are planning on installing and using Firefox instead of Opera.
To make Opera java aware do:

in the Terminal Activity type ls /usr/java
take note of the full name of the jdk;
for instance on my install it is: jdk1.6.0_05
go to Opera
click on the Opera menu and select Tools
on the Tools menu select Preferences
click on the Advanced tab
click on Content
click on the Enable java box
click on the java options box
enter /usr/java/ /jre/lib/i386
on my XO I entered /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_05/jre/lib/i386
click ok
click ok again

To test that Opera is now java aware try visiting International Children’s Digital Library. The page should load very quickly.