PJ gets her XO

[mdlbear]

From Technoshaman we get a link to this post on groklaw where PJ describes her first encounter with her very own OLPC XO. It was given to her in a restaurant...

A younger guy sitting at a nearby table then piped up, "Just use Google Docs if you need Word documents." My brain about exploded. Of course! What can't you do that a businessman might typically want to do that he can't do on Google Docs? Note to countries thinking about whether or not to get the OLPC laptop and worrying about Word and Excel and all that: not only does the OLPC have equivalents, but if you want the kids to be able to function in a Microsoft environment, let them go to Google Docs and they can even share the work. An entire class and the teacher can all work on a project together. Here's how some others in the world are already using Google Docs.

"Nobody needs a hard drive any more," the young guy said. And you know what? It's true. So down topples another piece of anti-OLPC FUD.

But here's the best part. After we talked a while, I see a mom with her son, about 7 or 8 walking toward us. He's pulling on her hand, and from across the room, I can see the boy's eyes are fixed on the laptop and he is grinning from ear to ear. He looked like he'd just seen a dear friend. He walked right up to the table, and I immediately turned it his way so he could play, which he did without hesitation, without a word, still grinning.

His mother was nervous, thinking maybe he'd break it, or was being rude to butt in, but I told her I wanted him to play with it, so I could see what he did. He had absolutely NO difficulty at all, asked no one any questions, ignored us all totally, and played and played and played, grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

It's a kid magnet.

He wasn't intimidated by the laptop at all. It was like it was his, that it naturally belonged to him to play with. It was so cute. They have designed something so adorable that children, I saw, are drawn to it.

Kids just get it without a manual, but we, the adults, didn't.

I can't wait to get my hot little hands on mine... It's coming. Real Soon Now.

Maybe I should order another one?

Comments

[lapislaz.livejournal.com]

YUS! and send it to me!

[tagryn]

"Nobody needs a hard drive any more," the young guy said. And you know what? It's true.

If someone believes that, I suggest they take a really close look at the TOS agreement of the service where they're storing their important documents, especially as regards (a) privacy of documents and (b) liability if said documents are lost.

(And having had two USB drives die on me without warning, I don't think that's a viable alternative, either.)

[mdlbear]

True, but you don't need a hard drive on a laptop. As long as I can make an encrypted connection to my fileserver at home, I'm OK. Anything private gets encrypted when I back it up offsite, but most of what I have is web pages, which are public anyway.

I usually make my own USB drives by putting high-quality drives into separately-purchased, high-quality enclosures. But I don't expect them to last forever -- all hard drives eventually die. The trick is making sure you back up often enough not to have to worry about it.

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Hmmn... I hadn't thought of Google Docs. If it weren't for the low RAM, it would be perfect. I'll have to see what it looks like in reality. (It also requires constant internet access unless there's a Sugarized Google Gears and offline implementation, but I suspect Write aka AbiWord would still be more efficient.)

Also watch things like this thread on the OLPC News Forum or this item from Aaron Barlow's blog for differing views of the OLPC project. And then this anthropology blog entry for a more affirming approach. We'll see if the OLPCNews Forum user called bluedragon uses my question to ask Michail Bletsas.

We won't know where this is headed for at least a few years. In the meantime, my lovely spouse can edit things in full sunlight, and I can dream of having enough time to write a text that teachers anywhere in the world can download and read free...