[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

Tue Nov 13 13:16:03 CST 2007

On Tue, Nov 13, 2007 at 12:42:26PM -0600, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> The Asus is described as "less rugged" when compared to the OLPC - I'd
> agree. It is solid enough (for my tastes), but I think they could have
> used a hardr plastic to help avoid scratches (this case *seems* to my
> untrained eye to be prone to scratches).

That's an interesting question. The harder the plastic, the more force 
is transfered to insides when it falls or is hit. Soft plastic scratches
or deforms absorbing the energy. Harder plastic means stronger "guts",
which adds to the weight and cost.

> The performance is pretty good (Celeron 900 MHz is no slouch IMHO),
> and the fan is pretty quiet - I'd like to up the RAM, but until I decide
> to trash the Linux OS there is no reason. The Linux OS can be restored
> from the supplied DVD/CD-ROM at any time.

Actually it's quite good. I was looking at a 1gHz AMD athalon processor,
which did not need a fan in a regular case, but might have if crammed
into a laptop. The demo unit I had was cool enough with an aluminum heat
sink and the air flow from a desktop power supply fan. 

With agressive power management you could get away with no fan at all.

Linux is a fairly nice OS, although I would prefer a commerical release
of a different operating system and someday may actually work on it.
I don't know hat distro they include, but DSL (damn small linux) runs
well with about 50 meg of distribution and includes FireFox, video
and audio players, a word processor (obviously not Open Office),
etc. 

Ubuntu has been very well received by the Windows users I've given it
to, but it needs a lot more "disk" space. 

I wrote:

> >You can make a pretty decent laptop of what's in an iPod Nano with a
> >better screen and it would not need a fan. The problem with doing so is
> >that it won't play videos, which is what most people would want them
> >for. 

Lionel wrote:

> Interesting...

It's the difference between what you WANT on a laptop and what you NEED.
A relatively slow ARM processor (and the other low power equivalents)
will do just about everything you would want except play MP4 videos and
run Open Office. But there are several, smaller and lighter programs
that do the same thing. 

> I have heard unconfirmed reports from sources I trust that the EEE can
> be used for "one arm monitor adjustments for skin tone" - that's what I
> hear anyway...

I don't get the reference, please email me privately and explain. :-)

> It appears to be pretty robust, and the form-factor is great - it is
> just as big as a typical O'Reilly book, and can be carried along with a
> couple books without needing a laptop bag. Also, the screen resolution
> is very nice - sites like boingboing, slashdot and sunhelp display
> nicely (800 x 480 is very usable on a 7" screen)...

Sounds good to me. Maybe I won't have to do it after all. Do you think
they might get down to $100 retail in a few years? My goal is to build
an "information appliance" that costs less than a high end toaster.

> Wikipedia page on the EE is pretty good (they say RAM can be upgraded
> to 2 Gigabytes - that *is* interesting...

That does soud interesting, but bear in mind that more RAM means more
heat, more cost, slightly more weight and most importantly less
battery life. 

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
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