November 2007 Archives
By now I'm sure you have all heard of the One Laptop Per Child charity. OLPC has received a lot of press coverage lately concerning mainly negatives toward their goals and product, the XO laptop. I wanted to take an opportunity to research the product and see just what $200 was buying. Overall I was impressed by what they have come up with.The XO has a simple design. It has no moving parts including a hard drive, CD or DVD drive instead using a 1GB flash memory that can be augmented with a SD or USB (3 ports available) device. Files can be backed up and access from a central storage system meant to be maintained by an educational facility or provided by a service such as Google.
A 433Mhz AMD chip provides the processing functionality. The low power requirements of this chip allow the XO to operate without a cooling fan. The processor goes into sleep mode during periods of inactivity to reduce power requirements. Two options of batteries are provided each with costs of ~$10 to replace. These batteries hold are able to charge the XO for 4 to 5 times longer than a normal laptop battery. If normal wall socket charging is not available there are several options including a solar panel, a hand crank (similar to those used on wind-up radios), a foot pedal and a pull-string recharger, similar to a starter cord on a lawnmower. The pull-string charger provides 10 minutes of power per pull.
The system runs on Linux which takes only 130Mb of space. It includes standard programs such as a web browser based on Firefox; a word processor able to handle most common document types, including Microsoft formats; a PDF reader and media player. In addition, it comes with games, a music creation tool and drawing programs.
While not providing an Ethernet port the XO does maintain robust WiFi functionality. The XO operates on a wireless mesh network, each machine acting as a computer and router. It is compatable with most wireless protocols but can network with other XO's if no internet is available. Machines in range of an internet connection share that connection with all other machines in the mesh. The rabbit ears, dual onboard wi-fi antennas, boost the normal range 2 to 3 times. Tests in the outback of Australia showed that two laptops could communicate more than 2km (1.2 miles) apart in ideal conditions.
The XO also provides an onboard camera for still and motion capture, a QWERTY based keyboard that supports a variety of languages, and a hard case with 400 color combinations so that children can more easily identify their machine. The XO has been dropped at 5 feet and the keyboard dunked in water for 10 minutes with no breakage or reduction in functionality.
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<wargame's computer voice>Would you like to play a game?</wargame's computer voice>
Have you seen the Dude commercial from Budweiser? As soon as I saw it tonight I thought of Twitter. With the forced limit of 140 characters to get your point across how useful can a word like Dude be? Dude can inflect so much in 4 letters. Surprise, friendship, disappointment, empathy, boredom, boast, congratulations, and jealousy just to name a few.
Dude can also be gender neutral. Hardly anyone says Dudette. While generally Dude is meant to be a male reference I've seen it used in both cases.
Inflection is the key for using Dude on Twitter. How do you ensure your meaning of the word is understood? We just have to be creative which to me is one of the joys of Twitter.
So lets play Dude it up on Twitter! Rules are simple. If you get tagged then pass it on to another friend on Twitter. Use creative ways to express your meaning to your target.
Examples using me @marcbenton:
@marcbenton dood (meaning Marc's a noob at this whole social media thing and should consider signing off)
@marcbenton dude! (meaning I can't believe Marc supports Huckabee for president. Another Arkansas governor???)
@marcbenton DUDE (meaning cut down on the Twitter updates Marc, no one cares how many times you go to the bathroom a day)
@marcbenton duuuuude (meaning I'm sorry Marc for the pic you posted on Flickr showing off your new haircut, was that done with hedge clippers?)
I'll kick this off tonight and see if it gets any traction. Lets have some fun!
Twit (or dude) me up at marcbenton
Here's the Bud commercial if you haven't seen it. Enjoy dude!
Comments (1)
Have you seen the Dude commercial from Budweiser? As soon as I saw it tonight I thought of Twitter. With the forced limit of 140 characters to get your point across how useful can a word like Dude be? Dude can inflect so much in 4 letters. Surprise, friendship, disappointment, empathy, boredom, boast, congratulations, and jealousy just to name a few.
Dude can also be gender neutral. Hardly anyone says Dudette. While generally Dude is meant to be a male reference I've seen it used in both cases.
Inflection is the key for using Dude on Twitter. How do you ensure your meaning of the word is understood? We just have to be creative which to me is one of the joys of Twitter.
So lets play Dude it up on Twitter! Rules are simple. If you get tagged then pass it on to another friend on Twitter. Use creative ways to express your meaning to your target.
Examples using me @marcbenton:
@marcbenton dood (meaning Marc's a noob at this whole social media thing and should consider signing off)
@marcbenton dude! (meaning I can't believe Marc supports Huckabee for president. Another Arkansas governor???)
@marcbenton DUDE (meaning cut down on the Twitter updates Marc, no one cares how many times you go to the bathroom a day)
@marcbenton duuuuude (meaning I'm sorry Marc for the pic you posted on Flickr showing off your new haircut, was that done with hedge clippers?)
I'll kick this off tonight and see if it gets any traction. Lets have some fun!
Twit (or dude) me up at marcbenton
Here's the Bud commercial if you haven't seen it. Enjoy dude!
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I've been fighting with this Movable Type installation for over a week attempting to apply custom templates to two new blogs I am working on. I'm using MT4 on this site and their documentation for this version is less than exemplary. It is also too new for any published books, Six Apart says they are still a few months away.
I finally had a breakthrough this evening and of course the solution was a /facepalm moment. It had to do with the way I was referring to the URL of the sites due to having the other two domains as addons to this one. I have mbenton.com registered with HostMonster as my main account along with user40-0.com as an addon. This means my home for mbenton.com is .../public_html/ and home for user40-0.com is .../public_html/user40-0/. MT4 asks for a URL and a home directory when creating a blog. For user40-0.com I was responding with the correct home directory but was using a URL of http://www.user40-0.com. That would create the blog but not apply any templates. The correct repsonse to the URL question was http://www.marcbenton.com/user40-0/. Now it works as advertised. Too bad this isn't documented anywhere that I could find.
Hopefully this might help someone out.
Comments (0)
I finally had a breakthrough this evening and of course the solution was a /facepalm moment. It had to do with the way I was referring to the URL of the sites due to having the other two domains as addons to this one. I have mbenton.com registered with HostMonster as my main account along with user40-0.com as an addon. This means my home for mbenton.com is .../public_html/ and home for user40-0.com is .../public_html/user40-0/. MT4 asks for a URL and a home directory when creating a blog. For user40-0.com I was responding with the correct home directory but was using a URL of http://www.user40-0.com. That would create the blog but not apply any templates. The correct repsonse to the URL question was http://www.marcbenton.com/user40-0/. Now it works as advertised. Too bad this isn't documented anywhere that I could find.
Hopefully this might help someone out.
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Here's a quick post with my favorite web comics. I've read most of these for over a year and thought it was time I gave them some publicity. I was a long time player of City of Heroes and World of Warcraft so most of my online humor comes in the form of gaming comics.
Looking for Group - Great art and storylines. Follow Cale'anon and his band of adventurers as they make their way through a Warcraft type world. Richard the Warlock alone makes this site my favorite (see video below).
PVP Online - by Scott Kurtz. Updated daily this is my longest running read. Highly recommend it to anyone from the gaming generation (that basically includes anyone).
Dark Legacy Comics - Based on World of Warcraft so you need to have some WoW experience to get this one.
The noob - Another MMOG based comic. If you've ever played an MMO then you've experienced most, if not all, of the situations reflected here.
City of Zeroes - Based on the City of Heroes game.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Updated daily. If you like irreverent over-the-top humor then this is the site for you.
Binary Souls / Other Dimensions - This is a relatively new comic online created by a local author that I found via Twitter. Great graphics.
Enjoy! Please share some of yours.
Comments (0)
Looking for Group - Great art and storylines. Follow Cale'anon and his band of adventurers as they make their way through a Warcraft type world. Richard the Warlock alone makes this site my favorite (see video below).
PVP Online - by Scott Kurtz. Updated daily this is my longest running read. Highly recommend it to anyone from the gaming generation (that basically includes anyone).
Dark Legacy Comics - Based on World of Warcraft so you need to have some WoW experience to get this one.
The noob - Another MMOG based comic. If you've ever played an MMO then you've experienced most, if not all, of the situations reflected here.
City of Zeroes - Based on the City of Heroes game.
Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal - Updated daily. If you like irreverent over-the-top humor then this is the site for you.
Binary Souls / Other Dimensions - This is a relatively new comic online created by a local author that I found via Twitter. Great graphics.
Enjoy! Please share some of yours.
Share:
How successfully can someone with virtually no web presence build one while providing useful content to the web community?
This is the question I want to try and answer using this blog, various social applications along with local networking events. Hopefully this doesn't sound too self-absorbing, most people just open a blog and get to it. I want to document the process, the successes, the pit-falls, and the total experience so that others may follow.
Geoff Livingston recently proposed an interesting question on Twitter recently:
How do you know when you are a social media success?
It looks like the majority of his responses were you are never a success for long. Don't rest on your laurels! My thought went another way, you become successful as you make others succeed. Thats my goal. Whether its a client or someone reading this blog my hope is that I can help provide for their success and we can keep the ball rolling. Think Pay It Forward.
For a personal blogger the first step is finding what to write about. A focus if you will. After much thought and some helpful guidance at the New New Internet conference, this is my focus:
How does a veteran of the software development industry with heavy experience in waterfall and spiral development efforts, along with rigid CMMi practices, migrate to and successfully practice the new Web 2.0 experience?
Tomorrow I'll take the next step and organize my resources. More to come.
Comments (0)
This is the question I want to try and answer using this blog, various social applications along with local networking events. Hopefully this doesn't sound too self-absorbing, most people just open a blog and get to it. I want to document the process, the successes, the pit-falls, and the total experience so that others may follow.
Geoff Livingston recently proposed an interesting question on Twitter recently:
How do you know when you are a social media success?
It looks like the majority of his responses were you are never a success for long. Don't rest on your laurels! My thought went another way, you become successful as you make others succeed. Thats my goal. Whether its a client or someone reading this blog my hope is that I can help provide for their success and we can keep the ball rolling. Think Pay It Forward.
For a personal blogger the first step is finding what to write about. A focus if you will. After much thought and some helpful guidance at the New New Internet conference, this is my focus:
How does a veteran of the software development industry with heavy experience in waterfall and spiral development efforts, along with rigid CMMi practices, migrate to and successfully practice the new Web 2.0 experience?
Tomorrow I'll take the next step and organize my resources. More to come.
Share:
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