This article is a translation of the email sent by Walter Bender on the list Community-news of Sugar Labs , September 22, 2008. See the original article in English.

The trisection of angles: in three articles published in 1830, the French mathematician Evariste Galois laid the foundations of an algebraic proof of the fact that it is not possible to divide an angle into three with the rule and Compass, a fact known to the ancient Greeks but they were unable to prove. However, what is often forgotten is that the Greeks knew divide an angle into three using other instruments. What is the history lesson has to do with Sugar Labs? OLPC-Sur list was dominated by two threads, both separate and connected: the announcement of Microsoft on the Windows XP pilot in Peru, and the lack of function to extract the square root in Turtle Art, both discussions can be viewed through the lens of abstract algebra - apologies if this analogy too far.

Let me first summarize the discussion on Turtle Art. Some teachers in Uruguay teach the Pythagorean theorem and were blocked by the absence of square root function in Turtle Art. They wanted to demonstrate that the length of the diagonal of a square equals the square root of the sum of the square on each side. In pseudo-code, they wanted to build the following construction:

  repeat 4 (forward 100 right-turn 90)
  45-turn right
  advancing root-square ((100 * 100) + (100 * 100)) 

Many possibilities were discussed, including the use of Dr. Geo. My favorite comment is that Pato Acevedo, who said:

  [Ironic mode ON]
  Sure, I can not understand how Pythagoras "discovered"
  his famous theorem without time calculator.
  [Irony mode off] 

But in fact, despite some intervention on my part, the discussion has turned to how to change the Turtle Art activity. I made ​​a tutorial (see http://sugarlabs.org/go/Patching_Turtle_Art , in English) with the hope not only to meet the immediate needs of teachers, but also show them that in fact they could make them themselves the necessary changes to the program so that it meets their needs. I hope I do not have them made it too easy, and some will take the chance to make changes - to create new instruments. The beauty of free software is that if a permutation group does not allow you to "trisecter an angle", you can always edit the group. Dialogue between teachers and developers began. The next step is that some teachers become developers.

What is the relationship with the announcement about Windows XP? It's just a shame that Microsoft does not use its vast resources to expand opportunities for children by going to places that are not already served by OLPC. Regardless of the merits of Windows XP, they could have an immediate impact and lasting covering space which is outside the Peruvian permutation group. Pamela Jones and Sean Daly wrote a more detailed analysis of history for XP Groklaw (see http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080920181151638 ).

The text below is my response to the article in Gizmodo on the announcement of a pilot deployment of Windows XO in Peru. This post is the French translation of my reaction as it was published on OLPC News on 17/09/2008.

Windows on XO

As mentioned on the website Gizmodo, Microsoft and the OLPC foundation have announced the first official pilot of XO under Windows (see http://gizmodo.com/5050208/first-windows-xp-olpc-pilot-marks- the Lateran ).

To be honest, it's not really a surprise. We have been hearing for months that the agreement between Microsoft and the OLPC foundation will enable the deployment of OLPC in new countries. Let us remember Nicholas Negroponte's speech about Egypt (quoted by OLPC News ).

"When I went to Egypt for the first time I met separately with the Minister for Communications, Minister of Education, Minister of Science and Technology, and the Prime Minister. Each in their first three sentences told me: 'Can you run Windows?' "

I must also say that my feeling is that many volunteers have been waiting for the announcement of a new major deployment of XOs. Each new deployment is indeed a reason to believe in this wonderful project and we sometimes miss.

The disadvantage of this announcement is, of course, that each offer on "Windows on the XO" is very sensitive in the OLPC community. Remember, the departure of Walter Bender and the fact that most volunteers come from the world of Open Source. You know what I mean ...

However OLPC means' One Laptop Per Child "we must be pleased that more children have the opportunity to have a machine, even on Windows XP.

The announcement of Peru therefore seems a good way both to have a new deployment, to give XOs to children and to uphold the vision of Nicholas Negroponte.

Unfortunately the reality is different: Peru is not at all a new OLPC deployment. According to the OLPC Wiki , Peru has an agreement to acquire 10 000 XO in 2007 and for the acquisition of 81,000 XO in 2008. Peruvians use so children currently on the XO Sugar. This means that this announcement means that the number of XOs will not increase. It also means that only part of Peru's 91,000 XO will be used on Sugar. It sounds like a way of saying "Finally Sugar is not that good." Gizmodo's article also speaks of "Transition between Sugar and XP" ...

This announcement also adds to the confusion just before the 2008 G1G1. If you are a reader of OLPC News, you already know he has said many things confused on G1G1: price, date, dual-boot or not, target countries, ... This has also forced the foundation to publish a press release .

My feeling is that whenever there is confusion, there is a risk of losing a buyer of XO. And each new XO is very important because each new XO is the promise of reducing the XO a few cents. As the project "Computer for $ 100" is a "Computer to $ 188" other computers have already achieved the target of $ 100 as of today: see the announcement of Minimote to $ 98 .

My feeling is that whenever there is confusion there is a risk of losing a volunteer on the project because each offer on Windows hurts Sugar volunteers while each volunteer is important for support and help future users of XO.

That is why I am afraid that this announcement is not really good news.

"Joyride" in English. This is the name of the new version of Sugar that we will soon appear on our TV screens (the XO). With any luck, this should be the same version that will equip the XO G1G1 2008. First post from which to explore this new version.

And the first thing that changes is the home page on which you arrive. It is also called "view favorites" (we'll see why later):

The new home page

Activities are now further down the page, but around the central character. This gives a comprehensive view of activities and it avoids having to scroll automatically as they are distributed on the circle.

But this is not one view available. By clicking on the icon in the upper right, it is also possible to have a view "list":

View list

This view displays detailed information: name, version of the activity (information that was very difficult to find before!) And the launch date of last activity. The star left to indicate whether the activity will be found in the previous view.

Another view is also available, it is actually another way to present the "big favorite" free placement. It is triggered by clicking on the icon of the circle and by choosing "Open." You get to a view that resembles what we know of a traditional office, for example on Windows. The icons are randomly distributed and can be arranged by drag / drop:

Free view

Also new is the ability to "search" an activity with the search box. We type letters and all activities containing that sequence of letters is displayed:

Research activity

Another advantage of the list view can simply delete the activity via the menu.

Menu from the list view

Well, that's it for this first discovery. Note that eventually, ergonomics is now proposed for the homepage is convenient and somewhere closer to what one knows.

While Haiti is still recovering from hurricanes Gustav and Hanna and prepares for the arrival of Ike and Josephine, back for a moment on an episode happier: the OLPC camp was held at school Republic Chile between June 16 and July 31, 2008.

The Republic of Chile School is unique in more ways than one. Located in the heart of Port-au-Prince, this public school-girl has just been renovated with funds from Chile. The buildings are in very good condition, the architecture has been well thought out, there are electrical outlets everywhere, and we even had at our disposal an access point connected to broadband Internet.

Teachers are better than one level in most Haitian schools. Those who attended the summer camp were selected based on their motivation, and received financial compensation for their mobilization during this month and a half. Upstream from the camp, they had received training on the principles of constructivism and the use of the XO. This training began in mid-May, but it has really become effective until late May when the XOs arrived.

The teachers were not all the same computing experience: for some, the XO was the first computer they touched, others had already done research on the Internet, written documents with a word processor, etc. . The handling of XO proved fairly easy for all teachers, at least for the main activities (Write, Browse, Save, Paint, etc..) The Cat was a resounding success, and we quickly helped break ice when I arrived.

Still, most teachers would have liked to know more about the machine itself, dominate a little better. This need is particularly felt when the teachers were confronted with students who either asked them questions which they did not respond, or their functions showed that they themselves do not know.

The distribution of 100 children XO was an extraordinary moment. All quickly found out how to open the XO (do the test with an adult, he will find slower!) And they all began to show how late it was done, ... when one of them received a response to a question, it was ten girlfriends who learned in the aftermath. Here are some pictures of that time unpacking and euphoria.

At the end of camp, we conducted a small survey to find out what worked and what did not market too. The survey shows the most obvious problems: unstable mouse, batteries that are difficult to manage together (you could not reload all the computers at the same time), difficulty finding the right way to do with kids, etc.. An element of the investigation close to my heart: teachers have all stressed the need to involve parents of children who receive XOs. This is an excellent idea and we try to imagine its implementation for the remainder of the deployment.

Curiously, teachers have not really complained about the lack of educational resources, even if this request came regularly during our discussions. I think it's because the camp has mostly allowed to take charge of activities rather than really "make progress" with the XO. Perhaps this silence is because teachers have courses in impromptu As the camp: for example, they asked students to interview people about transport in the capital, they have put students in situations to build a newspaper for the camp. Finally, the temporary absence of resources, although it has sometimes put some teachers in difficulty, has allowed others to set their own goals, and allow children to express themselves freely with their XO.

I just spent two weeks in this camp. But that was enough to convince me of the potential for change that could bring the XO in Haitian schools. Change not only the effect of introducing a new tool - be it the XO. More profound change that makes teachers aware that they are directly responsible for a large part of what they teach, as the team OPLC Haiti (I've seen build) will be directly responsible for the support she bring to all teachers.

Watch this space!