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This page is updated each week (usually on Monday morning) with notes from the Sugar Labs community. (The digest is also sent to the community-news at sugarlabs.org list and blogged at walterbender.org.) If you would like to contribute, please send email to walter at sugarlabs.org by the weekend. (Also visit planet.sugarlabs.org.)
Sugar Digest
1. As Caroline Meeks and I are wrapping up the Sugar-on-a-Stick summer programs, it has been a time to reflect upon what we have learned and what challenges face us in September (Many thanks to Greg, Anurag, Jennifer, et al. for their help). The goal of our pilots was to identify any issues we might face with a school-wide rollout of Sugar on a Stick and to work through many unknowns regarding the logistics of deployment.
We learned a great deal, e.g., replication of custom keys: be sure to remove any owner keys in the .sugar/default directory before copying. And we experimented with a number of different workflows regarding how to prepare for a class: use USB extension cables if possible; preload helper boot CDs; have the children turn on their computers and then gather for a discussion of the lesson plan while the machines are booting; have a cache of hot spares since some USB devices inevitably will not boot (more on this in a moment); have the children shutdown the computers and then gather for a wrap-up discussion while the machines power off; etc. And we uncovered some bugs in our sharing logic (See my post from last week); and experienced some issues regarding robustness of the USB images.
It is this latter topic that was the subject of much debate on the Sugar mailing lists this week and which I would like to touch upon today.
While we did experience some "failures", given the circumstances, we were not able to do a very systemic analysis of the situation. We know that some sticks fail to boot and some have corrupted user data. We don't have an actionable characterization of the circumstances under which these problems occur.
James Cameron summed up the situation:
- If any state is preserved by the children on the USB sticks, and there is no copy of the state kept elsewhere, and there is a possibility of power failure, premature removal, or other interruptions, then every software component that uses the saved state must be either capable of detecting corruption of the saved state, or graceful recovery from apparently invalid state.
Meeting this challenge is not trivial; the more clarity we can bring to the use cases, the more likely we will be able to engineer solutions.
In the meanwhile, we need to: experiment with more USB manufacturers; be more careful about characterizing the different failure modes; do some workflow experiments to see if we can minimize failures; try different file formats; and come up with simple and robust backup/restore mechanism so that we can end run failures.
Greg Dekoenigsberg has suggested we take advantage of Fedora Test Days to put a more rigorous analysis together. But we need a testing plan which means we need to first come to consensus on what it is we are trying to test.
Variables include:
- Which Sugar-on-a-Stick image is being tested?
- What customizations have been made?
- What process was used to create the USB device?
- What size and brand of device is being tested?
- What hardware the device is being tested on?
- What is the nature of the failure? (no boot, corrupted data, etc.?)
- What was the history of use prior to failure?
Let's get a plan together and take advantage of this generous offer from the Fedora community.
2. Jeff Elkner reports that Jamie Boisture completed his summer project: using GASP with 15 middle-school summer-enrichment students, and it worked wonderfully! Jamie also submitted a merge request with Pippy to have GASP included in Pippy. (Jamie was sponsored by Jeff in a program modeled after Google Summer of Code. We should try to do more such programs.
Help wanted
3. It is not too late to sign up as a candidate for the Sugar Oversight Board. Also, please add yourself to the Membership List if you are not already listed.
4. Werner Westermann reported that "Patricio Acevedo left the audience shocked after presenting Sugar in the 2nd Innovation Workshop: The Creative Teacher, held in the Metropolitan Educational University, in Santiago, Chile." It was the first official activity of the newly formed Sugar Labs Chile.
5. Squeakfest USA is next week in Los Angeles.
tech talk
6. Sebastian Dziallas announced the availability of a new SoaS snapshot that includes the latest Sugar Release 0.85.3. It is a developer release--any testing would be greatly appreciated.
Sugar Labs
7. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on the IAEP mailing list (Please see SOM).
An archive of this digest is available.
Planet
The Sugar Labs Planet is found here.
Sugar in the news
| 03 Aug 2009 |
Wired: Geek Dad – Inventing a New Paradigm: SugarLabs and the Sugar UI
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| 23 Jul 2009 |
Everything USB – RecycleUSB.com - Donate your Flash Drives for a Good Cause
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| 22 Jul 2009 |
OLPC France – Sugar : mauvaise presse et mise au point
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| 13 Jul 2009 |
Spiegel Online – Das zuckersüße Leichtbau-Linux
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| 07 Jul 2009 |
ComputerWorldUK – Gran Canaria Desktop Summit: a Study in Contrasts
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| 06 Jul 2009 |
Windows Forest – USBメモリなどから“OLPC”用のOSを利用できる「Sugar on a Stick」が無償公開
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| 02 Jul 2009 |
Howard County Library – Sugar on a Stick
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| 27 Jun 2009 |
Deutschlandfunk – Süßes für die Kleinen: Sugar ist Linux speziell für Kinder (in Deutsch)
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| 26 Jun 2009 |
EduTech – Sugar on a stick, and other delectables (praise for the lowly USB drive)
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| 26 Jun 2009 |
Ars Technica – Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms
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| 24 Jun 2009 |
BBC – OLPC software to power aging PCs
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| 24 Jun 2009 |
Technology Review – $100 Laptop Becomes a $5 PC
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| 15 Jun 2009 |
TechSavvyKids – Episode 10 FOSSVT: Sugar on a Stick (audio)
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| 10 Jun 2009 |
LWN.net – Sugar moves from the shadow of OLPC
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| 27 May 2009 |
LWN.net – Activities and the move to context-oriented desktops (subscriber link)
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| 27 May 2009 |
Business Wire – Dailymotion Launches Support for Open Video Formats and Video HTML Tag
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| 01 May 2009 |
Guysoft – Nokia N810 Running OLPC Sugar
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| 29 Apr 2009 |
El Mercurio – Así se vivió la fiesta del software libre
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| 27 Apr 2009 |
ostatic – Sugar on a Stick: Good for Kids' Minds (and School Budgets)
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| 25 Apr 2009 |
Free Software Magazine – The Bittersweet Facts about OLPC and Sugar
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| 24 Apr 2009 |
Ars Technica – First taste: Sugar on a Stick learning platform
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| 22 Apr 2009 |
Betanews – Beta of Live USB Sugar OS opens
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| 27 Mar 2009 |
Mass High Tech – Google promotes summer open-source internships
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| 18 Mar 2009 |
Metropolis – A Good Argument
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| 16 Mar 2009 |
Laptop Magazine – Sugar Labs’ New Version of Sugar Learning Platform Is Netbook and PC Ready
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| 16 Mar 2009 |
Market Watch – Sugar Labs Nonprofit Announces New Version of Sugar Learning Platform for Children, Runs on Netbooks and PCs
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| 14 Feb 2009 |
OLPC Learning Club – DC – Learning Learning on a Stick
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| 05 Feb 2009 |
xconomy – Sugar Beyond the XO Laptop: Walter Bender on OLPC, Sucrose 0.84, and “Sugar on a Stick”
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| 26 Jan 2009 |
Linus Magazine – Sugar Defies OLPC Cutbacks
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| 19 Jan 2009 |
Feeding the Penguins – The status of Sugar, post-OLPC
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| 16 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
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| 12 Jan 2009 |
Bill Kerr – thoughts about olpc cutbacks
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| 07 Jan 2009 |
Ars Technica – OLPC downsizes half of its staff, cuts Sugar development
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| 06 Jan 2009 |
OLPC News – An Inside Look at how Microsoft got XP on the XO
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| 30 Dec 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugar Labs Status at Six Months
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| 22 Dec 2008 |
The GNOME Project – Sugar Labs, the nonprofit behind the OLPC software, is joining the GNOME Foundation
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| 16 Dec 2008 |
Feeding the Penguins – Sugar git repository change
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| 14 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk (Part 2)
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| 13 Dec 2008 |
NPR – Laptops May Change The Way Rural Peru Learns (Part 1)
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| 09 Dec 2008 |
SFC – Sugar Labs joins Conservancy
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| 31 Oct 2008 |
Linux Devices – An OLPC dilemma: Linux or Windows?
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| 10 Oct 2008 |
Feeding the Penguin – Sugar on Ubuntu
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| 21 Sep 2008 |
Groklaw – Interview with Walter Bender of Sugar Labs
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| 17 Sep 2008 |
Bill Kerr – Sugar Labs
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| 16 Sep 2008 |
Open Source – Sugar everywhere
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| 28 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – An answer to Walter Bender's question 22
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| 20 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Sugarize it: Intel Classmate 2
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| 08 Aug 2008 |
Investor's Business Daily – 'Learning' Vs. Laptop Was Issue
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| 06 Aug 2008 |
OLPC News – Twenty-three Questions on Technology and Education
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| 18 Jul 2008 |
Bill Kerr – evaluating Sugar in the developed world
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| 28 Jun 2008 |
OLPC News – A Cutting Edge Sugar User Interface Demo
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| 18 Jun 2008 |
PC World – OLPC Spin-off Developing UI for Intel's Classmate PC
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| 17 Jun 2008 |
Datamation – If Business Succeeds with GNU/Linux, Why Not OLPC?
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| 11 Jun 2008 |
LinuxInsider – The Sweetness of Collaborative Learning
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
Bill Kerr – untangling Free, Sugar, and Constructionism
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
Open Education – Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation
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| 06 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy
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| 05 Jun 2008 |
Code Culture – The Distraction Machine
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| 05 Jun 2008 |
BusinessWeek – OLPC: The Open-Source Controversy
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| 27 May 2008 |
The New York Times – Why Walter Bender Left One Laptop Per Child
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| 26 May 2008 |
Ars Technica – OLPC software maker splits from X0 hardware, goes solo
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| 22 May 2008 |
BetaNews – Linux start-up Sugar Labs in informal talks with four laptop makers
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| 16 May 2008 |
OSTATIC – OLPC's Open Source Sugar Platform Aims for New Hardware
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| 16 May 2008 |
PCWorld – Bender Forms Group to Promote OLPC's Sugar UI
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| 16 May 2008 |
MHT – Bender jumps from OLPC, founds Sugar Labs
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| 16 May 2008 |
News.com – Sugar Labs will make OLPC interface available for Eee PC, others
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| 16 May 2008 |
Feeding the Peguins – The future of Sugar
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| 16 May 2008 |
Sugar list – A few thoughts on SugarLabs
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| 16 May 2008 |
xconomy – Bender Creates Sugar Labs—New Foundation to Adapt OLPC’s Laptop Interface for Other Machines
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| 16 May 2008 |
BBC – '$100 laptop' platform moves on
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| 15 May 2008 |
OLPC wiki – Dual-boot XO Claim: OLPC will not work to port Sugar to Windows.
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| 16 May 2008 |
Softpedia – Bender Launches Sugar Labs for Better Development of OLPC's Sugar UI
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Press releases
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