A Few Minutes of OLPC Related Internet Fame
I'm somewhat involved with the OLPC project and am fortunate enough to have prototype units to develop software on. My main focus is on 3D graphics for the laptop, with the eventual goal of getting my children's 3D modeling software GollyGee Blocks running on the machine.
I saw Rob Pegoraro's column in the Washington Post on the Classmate PC a few weeks ago, and he mentioned OLPC but hadn't had the opportunity to see one. Rob's a great guy and I've corresponded with him before so I offered to bring my test unit down for a demo. We then got Wayan Vota of OLPC News involved, he knows a lot about the project and I thought it would be good to get his views on the machine.
We had a great stroke of luck that while all this was being organized OLPC contacted me to say they were sending me the latest B4 prototype. It arrived a few days before the meeting, I put the latest builds on the machines and brought them down to the Post office last Thursday. Rob brought along his loaner Classmate PC and we all geeked out for an hour.
Rob and Wayan get a lot more traffic to their sites than I do, and they've just linked to me, so hello everyone who's visiting from there. Here's a link to wayan's write up and here's Rob Pegoraro on our OLPC demo.
I think the OLPC is a great machine, the software is still coming along but has seen great strides. Regrettably I don't have a lot of time to spend working on it (I have a day job and two toddlers) but at least I've been able to do a little evangelism. I'd really like to thank the folks at OLPC for the prototypes, they've been key to my continued involvement.