Demoing the litl webbook to Sugar Labs’ Sean Daly at a recent impromptu meet-up.

 *** Note new time for August meeting. See end of this post. A new blog post will have more details.

This month, we’re doing a weeknight meet-up to look at a bunch of cool new OLPC-related hardware and another new release of the Sugar Learning Platform.

OLPC News July DC Meetup: See the Pixel Qi screen
Tuesday, July 13 at 6:30pm - 10:00pm
Looking Glass Lounge
3634 Georgia Ave NW in DC
1 block south of Georgia/Petworth Metro Station
RSVP on Facebook if you do the social networking thing…

The star of the evening will be a working example of the long awaited daylight-readable Pixel Qi 3Qi netbook screen recently offered as a DIY kit to swap into several models of off-the-shelf netbooks. The screen is the breakthrough technology originally developed by Mary Lou Jepsen for the OLPC XO that is now deployed on close to 2 million machines in developing countries. This technology is not only available now as a kit for hobbyists from Maker Shed, but will also soon be built into some major brands of consumer netbooks. See our previous blog post about this impressive DIY screen replacement kit.

We will also have the latest major milestone 10.1.1 build of  the Sugar Learning Platform on Fedora for BOTH the OLPC XO-1 and XO-1.5. More details on the release notes page. This is a must-have if you own a G1G1 XO laptop. It’ll be like you have a new machine after this upgrade and the Learning Club can advise you on the process at this and future meet-ups and meetings.

Hot off the UPS truck after a big (and much needed) price drop is Mike’s “litl webbook,” which is a large digital picture frame that flips around to become a web-only laptop that also connects to your flat screen TV.  The litl is significant to the OLPC movement in that it was designed by the same firms that worked on the original OLPC XO. Pentagram NY designed the user interface, and fuseproject the industrial design. The litl’s radically simple new user interface even contains software coded by several former OLPC employees. The litl is the closest embodiment to a consumer oriented XO laptop, except that it’s meant for your comfy broadband-connected living room or kitchen.

Jon Camfield will have the current incarnation of FrontlineSMS installed on his GSM modem-equipped OLPC XO-1. FrontlineSMS can send text message blasts out to groups, and manage replies, using only cellphone service. The system has proven invaluable for effecting agile communications in remote areas that do not have standard internet connectivity.

The Learning Club’s next meeting will be back at the Arlington Career Center on Saturday August 21 August 7, 2010*** at 1pm. Sugar Labs DC will present a much-anticipated workshop on TurtleArt as well as provide a peek at the social networking site they are building to support the software. Check back on the blog the week before or in your email inbox for meeting updates.

Hope to see you soon!

Flickr photo by Wayan Vota.

TimeLapse is computer software for the Sugar Learning Platform used to gather periodic data (sound and images).  It is the first software activity developed by Sugar Labs DC and runs on the OLPC XO-1 laptop. The idea for TimeLapse grew out of the exciting, eclectic, interdisciplinary meeting of scientists, computer programmers, pedagogues, and hardware hobbyists originally brought together by the OLPC Learning Club DC.

Dr. Frank Linton, who has an observation bee hive in his house, was interested in studying the relationship between the sound made by the hive and the health and well being of the bees inside.  He wondered if he could use his XO laptop to gather periodic sound sampling from the hive.  This real world need became the seed for the development of TimeLapse.

Over the past two years, with Dr. Linton acting as customer, Jeff Elkner, and a group of young programmers from Sugar Labs, DC have made steady improvements to TimeLapse.  The current release is the first one that is installable through the Browse Activity in Sugar, making TimeLapse easily available to Sugar users all over the world.

Come celebrate the accomplishment of these talented young programmers.  Bring your XO and try out TimeLapse for yourself.

Update: TimeLapse is now available for download on the Sugar  Labs activities site.

Note time change!!!
When: Saturday, January 16th, 2010, 1 pm to 4 pm
Arlington Career Center
816 South Walter Reed Drive,
Arlington, VA 22204
(Contact Page, Map, Aerial Photo, Bus Info)

Walter Bender of Sugar Labs will join in by video conference from Cambridge, MA.

We’ll also raffle off an original copy of the new XtraOrdinary 2010 SD card!

Update: The slide presentation and links mentioned during the meeting are now on the wiki.

For October, we’re back at Gallaudet University to look at a new software product for the XO-1 and an update of Sugar.

What: Family XO Mesh Meetup
When: Saturday, October 17th, 2009, 10 am to 1pm
Where: Gallaudet University [map, aerial photo], Student Academic Center,
**NOTE ROOM CHANGE: We are UPSTAIRS from the old meeting rooms in the basement on the first floor [floorplan], in computer lab SAC 1212, Washington, D.C. 20002

We have a copy of Ondisk’s XtraOrdinary operating system which is an SD card that boots the Debian flavor of Linux. There have been other SD-based adaptations of Linux for the XO, but this is the most comprehensive to date and easily obtainable via mail order. Though all the software on the SD card is free open source, Ondisk charges $40 to cover the cost of the SD card and duplication. With this card installed, the XO becomes an adult-friendly netbook with software such as a version of Firefox, Open Office, the GIMP photo editor, Skype, Pidgin universal chat, Totem multimedia player and much more.

We will demo the product and describe some of the minor quirks discovered to date. We’re impressed with this effort and it’s a valuable contribution to the XO consumer community, especially for those who do not have time or expertise to configure Linux software.

The latest 0.86 build of Sugar will also be reviewed. I will also bring news from my trip this week to the Media Lab and OLPC Headquarters.

Please let us know in advance if you have any OLPC-related hardware or software support needs.