What have you bought recently?


Got my daughter a One Laptop Per Child XO-4. I got her the original x86 based on a while back and its a great kids computer but a little slow and long in the tooth. I wanted to upgrade her to this one. All the bells and whistles but it's arm now so better battery life, some improved performance and it also has multitouch.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XO-4_Touch
 
I wonder if a modular CPU board would be a good option for OLPC. It would allow for low cost upgrades without the need to junk the old systems (I don't know how stuff like that works with this program). Maybe ED could get in touch with those people. If they went with what the Pyra uses we could potentially benefit from that.
 
There is a cpu upgrade for some of the OLPCs, but not for people outside of the program. It's basically an entire main board replacement. That's what I initially enquired about, because I didn't think they'd sell me a whole computer, but they were quite accommodating when they found out I was willing to pay lol.
 
I was just looking for the price and didn't see it listed anywhere (or how to buy them). I would still like to see something that produces even less waste, but the main board swap is ok, I guess.

I also went looking to see if they needed volunteers for distribution or training, and didn't find much there either. A lot of pages on their main site seem not to have been updated in several years. Maybe I can volunteer to fix that, but I would rather help out the schools, teachers, and kids.
 
They have definitely wound down. When it started in 2007 there was TONS of energy. I was part of the mailing list and followed the development with a lot of enthusiasm. The program itself did very well deploying to communities but whether it worked is a matter of subjective opinion I think. Recently following their Uruguay project there were studies that showed computers in the classroom did not improve math scores, but its notable that these findings were in schools that did NOT integrate computer programming into their curriculum (which if you read the literature was a crucial part of the OLPC philosophy). There were responses from teachers that said it was a critical tool in their classroom, but no hard numbers to support that optimism. After many revisions the XO computer was replaced with a more standard windows laptop and android tablet for recent deployments, which they also offered to sell me but I am not interested in a funny looking bog standard computer. Here in Canada there is still a deployment dealing with native children which looks promising, and I look forward to seeing what becomes of it.

Personally I think a lot of enthusiasm for the program petered out when they couldn't educate the public to the entire goal, or tell people that they were not just giving computers to starving people. The cynicism and overwhelming misinformation really soured the public perception. I can't blame them for getting worn out trying to fix that.

I'm sure that if you get the right person over email they would love volunteers, but since the end of the community interaction with the program I can't be sure where you would need to direct that inquiry.

I'm a big fan of the hardware though so I kept bugging them until I got through to their distribution department. To me it's equal parts toy for my daughter and a collectors item for my growing collection of weird and important computer milestones.
 
A bit of an update on the Kodak camera that I purchased. It's not going to get a new CCD after all, because if I time things right I can make it look like I live in Silent Hill.

100_1783.JPG
 
Food, and a can each of tennis balls (for the dogs) and racquetballs (they didn't sell them individually and I wanted something for me to be able to bounce around).
 
Ian J said:
Sweet always wanted one of those back in the DOS gaming height but I could only afford a Yamaha DB50XG
Click to expand...

Yamahas are also on my radar. I promised not to buy anything MIDI related until I play the hell out of Roland MT-32. Thankfully I managed to score a intelligent mode card to complement it.
 
Just got myself a used Thinkpad Tablet 2... only 9% battery wear, in good condition... unfortunately the previous owner had upgraded to win10, so I had some program incompatibilities... but I've managed some work-arounds and now everything I wanted it for is installed.

Paint Tool Sai
Sketchbook Pro
Clip Studio Paint.

I now have an inexpensive, lightweight, thin, low powered - all day battery, smart sketchbook.

My Surface Pro 2 is too precious and too heavy/thick to use as a casual sketchbook.

I am rather pleased indeed. :)
 
I am making a knife, so stuff for that here and there.

PVC pipe and other parts to replace pies for my kitchen sink drain. I thought I fixed it already, but it turned out the whole iron pipe was rusted out along the bottom.

Not a purchase, but I found a dollar next to my mailbox today that went toward buying the pipe.

I will help someone buy or build a computer soon.
 
At least a couple of those seem to be heavily influenced by the Waite-Smith pictures. I like how plain they are. Majors only?

In my previous post, "pies" should have been "pipes". Speaking of pies, someone bought me a pizza.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top