First, Tobias Pape and Arian Treffer, students of HPI, demonstrated SwaLint, a source code checker for Squeak. SwaLint is intended as a successor to SmallLint and, thanks to its flexible plug-in architecture, supports running SmallLint checks seamlessly. SwaLint can be configured in great detail: thresholds for all kinds of values can be set, and output can be filtered. Users can easily implement their own plug-ins for the tool.

Next, Michael Haupt (HPI) gave a brief demonstration of SqueakFS, which was implemented by Johan Björk and Eskil Andréen from Stockholm University, Sweden. SqueakFS makes the contents of a running Squeak image available as part of the file system. Currently, it is limited to read-only access, but the image can already be viewed from three perspectives: all classes as a flat collection, assorted by category, and by class hierarchy.

Robert Krahn presented SqueakSVN, which is an ongoing development effort in the Software Architecture Group at HPI. The purpose of SqueakSVN is to make Subversion version control available to Squeak developers; it is able to import Monticello projects. SqueakSVN will be released in June.

Martin Beck is currently working on his MSc thesis in the HPI Software Architecture Group. His work is dedicated to implementing NXTalk, a Smalltalk virtual machine for the Lego Mindstorms NXT platform. Development of NXTalk application takes place in a Squeak image, and assembled NXTalk images are transferred to the NXT for execution by the dedicated NXTalk VM. In the current state, simple images can be assembled and run: Martin demonstrated a program that can be used to steer a simple NXT bestowed with two motors.

The popular introduction to the Seaside web application framework that was produced at HPI was briefly presented by David Tibbe, one of its co-authors.

Robert Krahn had another appearance presenting the collection of games for the XO laptop developed by HPI students. All of the games are available for download as project or SAR files.

Finally, Carl Friedrich Bolz (Düsseldorf University), Adrian Kuhn (University of Bern), and Toon Verwaest (University of Bern) presented SPy, their ongoing effort to implement the Squeak VM in Python using the sophisticated PyPy tool chain. SPy is currently lacking GUI  and other I/O support, but is able to load images and run the tinyBenchmarks. Right after the Squeak association meeting, a PyPy development sprint in Berlin will, amongst others, bring new improvements.

After the official part of the association meeting, special guest Dan Ingalls gave a demonstration of Lively, his current project at Sun Labs. It looks and feels, admittedly, a bit like Squeak in disguise, but in Dan’s opinion, there is nothing bad about building the “same” system several times if it’s cool. That is certainly true for Lively.

Don’t miss this fun new video from Randal Schwartz and Leo about Squeak, EToys and OLPC.  Randal builds a very nice car demo.

Great video of the Waveplace XO Laptop Day.

EDITORIAL By Ron Teitelbaum.

You get what you pay for. The world is much better for all the corporate contributions to end poverty and the huge commitment over the years to help educate the worlds children. There is no question that the world owes a huge debt to these companies. Now that corporations have made such great strides throughout the world they should be paid handsomely for their computers and software. After all, corporate resources can never be matched by a Non-Profit.

These companies can spend their wealth to help make things better. They can afford to pay people to teach the teachers, and support their computers, and develop educational software for many many years to come. Of course they will do that without regard for expenses because they have so much money they can afford it.

Don’t believe anyone that tells you they are only in it for the profit or to enhance market share. Why shouldn’t they be allowed to create knockoffs and dump them on the market? Of course you get what you pay for. And they are paying for all of it, right? They will surely continue with our without competition from OLPC.

OLPC’s goal to educate the worlds poorest children, a vision of Nicholas Negroponte, could never compete. After all how much better can it get if all you are doing is eliminating the profit, engaging the worlds brightest minds, and providing the best possible platform for children to learn. Who cares if you developed a great little machine that uses fantastically innovative technology that will not only hold up to the extreme conditions found through out the developing world but will lead the way to new technologies for regular computers too.

Why do you need an education platform when you could just teach everyone existing standard presentation software. Why do we need education software for developing countries at all when we could just be teaching basic office skills instead? We all know that if the worlds children could just do a better presentation they could help themselves. All you really need is a good pitch and a good pair of bootstraps.

The endless pursuit of market share, the tunnel vision without regard to right and wrong, is what we are paying for. It is how the world works. The world has no room for idealism and lofty goals. We know that because if the corporations really believed in helping solve real problems they would be supporting and not competing with OLPC. They would be working to find a way to use their resources to help. They could support the project and include their hardware and software instead of directly competing. Why should they when the world is willing to pay them instead?

Be sure if you are backing the wrong side that you get it all in writing, and that you are prepared to accept less, if that is what you decide to pay for. The world doesn’t need a rugged little green child friendly extremely powerful education platform, go ahead and get pulled into the corporate solution instead, in the end you will pay.

(reproduced with permission)
January 3, 2008 8:17 p.m.

Intel Corp. says it has dropped out of a non-profit project to sell millions of low-cost laptops in the developing world, citing disagreements with the organization’s founder, Nicholas Negroponte.

The divorce culminates a stormy relationship between the Santa Clara, Calif.-based chipmaker and the One Laptop Per Child project, which recently began selling a low-cost laptop in African, Latin American and other countries. The two sides had been feuding over Intel’s aggressive marketing of a low-cost laptop of its own design in many of the same countries that the non-profit had been targeting. The OLPC machine uses a microprocessor from Intel’s chief competitor, Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

After more than a year of public sniping between Intel and OLPC, Intel joined OLPC’s board in July and had been planning on announcing a new low-cost, OLPC-designed laptop based on an Intel microprocessor at next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. But the company has quit the board and scrapped the new machine, according to Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy.

“We’ve reached a philosophical impasse with OLPC,” he said. He added that Mr. Negroponte had demanded that Intel stop selling its own designed laptop, known as the Classmate, and to stop supplying its chips in other laptops marketed to schoolchildren in developing countries. “We can’t accommodate that request,” Mr. Mulloy said. He said Intel favors offering “many solutions” to developing countries, not just the OLPC laptop. He also said dropping the Classmate would hurt Intel’s relationships with overseas manufacturers and suppliers.
Tens of thousands of Classmates have been sold.

Mr. Negroponte, a professor on leave from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, couldn’t be reached for comment. The simmering dispute between Intel and Mr. Negroponte was detailed in a page-one story in this newspaper in November.

The concept of a low-cost laptop for the world’s poorest schoolchildren has sparked great interest from world leaders and technology companies ever since Mr. Negroponte first proposed it three years ago as a way to bridge the technology divide between rich and poor countries. He vowed to get such a device, costing just $100, into the hands of up to 150 million children by this year. But although OLPC has managed to develop an innovative machine, it has failed so far to achieve its target price — the current model sells overseas for $188 — and to attract large orders from governments because of increasing competition. As sales problems mounted, the project recently reversed course on its plan not to sell the device to American consumers. In November, it began selling pairs of laptops to U.S. and Canadian consumers for $399 under a program in which buyers could keep one and give the other to a student in a poor country like Haiti. The program ended on Monday. OLPC has called the program — known as “Give One. Get One.” — successful, but hasn’t disclosed total sales figures.

Mr. Negroponte serves on a committee to protect the editorial integrity of Dow Jones & Co., the owner of The Wall Street Journal that was acquired last month by News Corp.

Now I know this computer is supposed to be for children, and I’ve really enjoyed seeing all the wonderful pictures of the children receiving their computers, but as an adult I really did not expect it to be this much fun.

I’m writing you from my olpc computer. I just received it from the Give 1 Get 1 program. I took this snapshot from the computer. Zoe was quite interested too and couldn’t resist getting in the picture.

I had no trouble getting on-line and figuring out the interface. I was quickly zooming around making music, guessing random numbers, finding matching tiles, and reading programs.  There are a lot of fun, interesting and educational activities to do.  I got to turtle art and had a blast creating my own turtle spirograph. I made the little turtle walk using the programming tiles in a repeating path, then turned it by 80 degrees and set up a repeat.  I was able to draw some very cool shapes.

What fun !! It is not too late, but time is running out fast. Give an Olpc XO computer to a needy child and get one that you can play with too! Now I guess maybe I’ll show it too wife and daughter. If I have too.

As they roll off the production line demand for the little education laptop is growing. The OLPC project, created by Nicholas Negroponte, to help teach the worlds children is starting to gain real traction. It sure didn’t take long to run through the first production run! The Give 1 Get 1 program appears to have been a big success. The program was extended through the end of 2007. Don’t wait get yours now!

Over the weekend Peru pushed the demand over the first run ordering 260,000 laptops. We are very happy that the huge potential is being recognized. The stories and pictures of the children around the world receiving their laptops are terrific.

We like to speculate about the benefits that these computers will bring to a world with such limited resources. How will these tools help to enhance the ability of teachers, provide access to materials and resources that help children learn, and eventually eliminate poverty in our world?

It is easy to get the wrong idea about what this computer is, just as it is easy to get the wrong idea of the benefit of the internet. There is so much of the internet that is not good for children. The explosion of new social media has many people asking if letting children on the internet at all is even a good idea. It is true that delivering access to basic software and the internet is of little value and could even be considered harmful. If the OLPC project was about delivering laptops there would really be no good reason to support it.

OLPC is not laptops, it’s software. It’s Squeak and EToys. It’s communications and collaboration. It’s coordination of lesson plans between teachers and with students. This is no regular computer, it’s an education platform geared to enhance the abilities of teachers to teach. To extend the reach of real educators, to provide a common platform so that the worlds brightest minds can reach across the great north-south divide and help teach children that have so little resources. It is a way to share the greatest discoveries of the past with the children of the future. There is no better way to fight violence and poverty than with education.

Children around the world will benefit from the extraordinary efforts of all the volunteers and participants in this very worthwhile project. Children that may even be in your own back yard. Like maybe Birmingham Alabama in the U.S.A. where the city just ordered 15,000 laptops for every child in grade 1 through 8.

It appears the questions about success are beginning to fade. The real question is can production keep up with demand. Demand OLPC today. There is no substitute for the little education laptop.

Now is the time! Between November 12 and November 26 you can help the OLPC project by donating a computer to a child in the developing world. You will also get one for yourself!

Do it today before time runs out!!

And they are off! Mass production of the One Laptop Per Child XO computer has started. The last of the major problems in production appear to have been chased out of the assembly line. Some minor problems with tooling that was causing some small blemishes on the bumpers have been tweaked. Everything is ready to roll.

The last major technical issues have been addressed with new tests developed to run on the production line itself. This high level of testing is necessary because of the harsh environments that this laptop will be used.

OLPC is an extremely low power very durable computer which is being developed to improve access to learning materials for the worlds children. This education project continues to amaze the world with the level of commitment to provide opportunities for all. Reaching Mass Production is no small task. Congratulations to all!