video: Inner working of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Mesh Networking

Ian Singer wrote:
>
>
>invalid@example.com wrote:
>
>>>http://geekvideo.blogspot.com/2007/0...per-child.html
>>
>>
>> Could someone please write up a one-paragraph
>> explanation of what is on the video? Vision
>> impaired folks can't see it and Lynx is a bit
>> dodgy with the audio track. Thanks!
>>
>They have these little laptops with monchrome screens. They basically
>look like toys and part of that is because they are green and have two
>antenna that stick up like ears. All of the computers can talk to each
>other automatically without having to do any set-up. If the first one in
>the mesh is connected to the internet then the next one can share the
>connection. If each has a wireless range of 300ft then if you have 4 of
>them in a staightline extending away from the web connection the last
>one would 1200 ft away and it could still be on the web. They can also
>share applicatione between them without being on the web. In the example
>give one was reading an e-book and it shared that application with
>another one. It too was reading the book, but could be in a different
>place. Is supposed to be simple as meant for children.

Thanks! What do they use for the micro processor
and the operating system? Monchrome screens --
those can be read in direct sunlight, right?
I think a lot of these poor countries have schools
that are outdoors or just have a roof with no walls.
do they have solar re-chargers or may be a hand crank?
I hope they include a programming language --
perhaps small talk or basic or python? Imagine ten
million kids all knowing how to write programs!

invalid@example.com> wrote in news:ksudndP3JKqW0PPb4p2dnA@giganews.com:

>
> Thanks! What do they use for the micro processor
> and the operating system?

AMD Geode LX-700 for the processor and a Linux distro based on Fedora
core 6.

> Monchrome screens --
> those can be read in direct sunlight, right?

Yep, but the screens are dual mode TFT's, capable of displaying in colour
too.

> I think a lot of these poor countries have schools
> that are outdoors or just have a roof with no walls.
> do they have solar re-chargers or may be a hand crank?

They have versions with hand cranks, foot pedals and pull cords.

> I hope they include a programming language --
> perhaps small talk or basic or python? Imagine ten
> million kids all knowing how to write programs!
>
They have python and Javascript built in, but they don't mention any
compilers or IDEs.

On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:24:39 +0100, Roy Schestowitz
<newsgroups@schestowitz.com> wrote:

> I think it's self balancing (in terms of the load). Apart from the fact
> that traffic should be encrypted, you also need to find routes that are
> not overly congested. If you are in a highly populated area, there are
> many routes you can choose from.

The "mesh" sounds like a text-book description of how the internet is
supposed to work, and problem of every child in the class piggy-backing on
one person's connection sounds like the reality of internet access. (Most
of us depend on a single route for at least some part of the link between
our machines and the wider internet.)

What part of this is supposed to be new?

__/ [ Ken Hagan ] on Tuesday 12 June 2007 11:55 \__

> On Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:24:39 +0100, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@schestowitz.com> wrote:
>
>> I think it's self balancing (in terms of the load). Apart from the fact
>> that traffic should be encrypted, you also need to find routes that are
>> not overly congested. If you are in a highly populated area, there are
>> many routes you can choose from.
>
> The "mesh" sounds like a text-book description of how the internet is
> supposed to work, and problem of every child in the class piggy-backing on
> one person's connection sounds like the reality of internet access. (Most
> of us depend on a single route for at least some part of the link between
> our machines and the wider internet.)
>
> What part of this is supposed to be new?

This is peer-based mesh, so the routers are not spread around near the nodes.

--
~~ Best of wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
1:00pm up 1 day 4:56, 8 users, load average: 0.62, 0.67, 0.75
http://iuron.com - help build a non-profit search engine

invalid@example.com> wrote:

> Thanks! What do they use for the micro processor
> and the operating system?

Didn't say. Clip was on the networking only.

> Monchrome screens --
> those can be read in direct sunlight, right?

Didn't say. Clip was on the networking only.

> do they have solar re-chargers or may be a hand crank?
> I hope they include a programming language --
> perhaps small talk or basic or python? Imagine ten
> million kids all knowing how to write programs!
>
>
Didn't say. Clip was on the networking only.


--


================================================== =======================
See my homepage at http://www.iansinger.com
hosted on http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=10623894
All genealogy is stored in TMG from http://www.whollygenes.com
Charts and searching using TNG from http://www.tngsitebuilding.com
I am near Toronto Canada, can I tell where you are from your reply?
================================================== =======================

"Ken Hagan" <K.Hagan@thermoteknix.co.uk> wrote in message
news:op.tts1x0f7m60l4k@khagan.ttx...
> The "mesh" sounds like a text-book description of how the internet
> is supposed to work, and problem of every child in the class piggy-
> backing on one person's connection sounds like the reality of
> internet access. (Most of us depend on a single route for at least
> some part of the link between our machines and the wider internet.)
>
> What part of this is supposed to be new?

Some wireless technologies, like WiFi, only allow peers to talk directly to
each other if they're within range for direct communication; others, like
GSM, only allow peers to talk if they're both in range of a base station.
Meshes allow peers to communicate through one or more third party peers,
extending the range significantly and/or reducing the amount of power you
need to reach a peer (by making several low-power hops instead of one
high-power one). Of course, the reachability of a peer (or your uplink to
the Internet) is then unpredictable, since it depends on where other devices
are, not just yours.

Most of the advances in OLPC are just in making existing technologies (a)
easy to use or automatic and (b) dirt cheap. The OS's security model is
about the only completely novel feature, and it remains to be seen how good
it is against live adversaries or unexpected threats.

S

--
Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS --Isaac Asimov


--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

Ian Singer wrote:
> They have these little laptops with monchrome screens.

Actually it's way more clever than that. The displays have a high-resolution
high-contract B&W mode, and a lower-resolution lower-contrast color mode.