Blather, Rinse, Repeat

More details in the morning, but I am currently posting from my XO Laptop (aka the One Laptop Per Child machine).

So far, the hardest thing has been rebooting my access point to allow the laptop to connect to the internet.

As I had feared, the keyboard is made for small fingers, so it's not immediately comfortable to type on, but it's at least as good as my cellphone's keypad.

I was sleepy last night, so I didn't write much about getting my very own XO Laptop. Here's a little more blather about it:

Actually, here are some pictures. The boring text bits will follow.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsmaster/sets/72157603522967083/

• ordering - I had heard about the $100 laptop project back when they were still hoping to roll out at the $100 price point. I still think that as they get into volume numbers, $100 is reachable, but in the early stages, $200 is still a pretty impressive mark to hit.
  
  I recall hearing about the "give one get one" program on the radio a month or so in October, maybe, something like a month before they were going to begin accepting orders. I signed up on the website to be notified when they would be able to take my order. The morning that the orders were taken, I happened to be having difficulty sleeping anyway, so I placed my order in the first hour (3:30am my time, I think).
  
  
• waiting, griping - there was a lot of interest in the program (yay!), leading them to extend the window of the G1G1 program through (currently) the end of 2007. I wonder if it'll extend beyond that. Or if it'll come back as they get time to learn from the experiences.
  
  One of my ex-coworkers posted to his blog that he had got his several days ago, which infuriated me. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet that he placed his order several hours, perhaps even a full day, after me. His take: "All in all, for a little more money than a DS Lite, it's a pretty bitchen[sic] machine". Ahem. I believe you mean "bitchin'".
  
  I went back through my email, and found the last communication I got from the OLPC people saying that I'd be notified when my laptop shipped. So, it was the Thursday night before Christmas, even if they shipped it on Friday, it wouldn't arrive before Monday, probably, so I was disappointed that I wouldn't have a cool toy to show off to my parents on Christmas Day. Worse things happen, of course.
  
  
• A Solstice Miracle! - I guess some who celebrate solstice believe in miracles and vice versa. When I got home on Friday, I found a small package on my doorstep - 10" x 11" x 4.5". I wasn't expecting any small packages, so I was a little surprised to see it, which turned into delight as I saw the green "1" on the side of the box. The photos (above) document opening the box and plugging the laptop in for the first time. The battery came with a full(ish?) charge, so I didn't really even need to unwrap the AC adaptor to get started.
  
  
• networking headaches - I suspect that I have my own networking configuration to blame for this, but it took me some time to get the laptop to see the internet. Strangely, the other people I know with XO laptops also report trouble setting up their networking. Here's hoping it settles down with later versions of the software. And here's hoping people with the current software can figure it out so they can update to the future versions.
  
  Once I was able to see the net (including browsing Live Journal, which it does pretty acceptably - better than my cell phone, certainly), I went to sleep. I'm a wimp like that.
  
  
• important installations - having had a short winter's nap, I opened up the terminal activity and used "yum" to install Zile (an emacs clone, which the OLPC wiki recommended), NetHack, and Frotz.
  
  I think I'll jam a bunch of Project Gutenberg e-books onto a SD card and venture off into the internet-blindspot that is my parents' part of the world.
  

Happy laptops to all, and may your holidays be festive and joyous.