CNN.com writes about a deployment of OLPCs in Peru. Things are looking really good for the program. Can’t wait to get my hands on the one.
I’ve seen some posts about people starting to receive theirs. I’m still looking to my inbox for a shipment notification.
It’s very nice of you to constantly update your rather overpriced software on a regular basis. It makes me all warm and fuzzy to see the Adobe Updater greet me every time I open any Adobe application. Just a thought, though. Perhaps when I’m trying to use one of the applications is not a good time to prompt me to run an update that will force that application to shutdown. Also, it would be really swell if I could limit the number of times per day I’m reminded that there are updates.
Some applications, even free ones update themselves quietly in the background and allow me to receive the benefits of said update the next time I launch the application with -get this- no interruption to my workflow.
Just something to think about. Merry Christmas, Adobe.
Every time they release an update to prototype, I drool a little as I read the changelog. This is especially true of their latest release. The problem is that when working on a project that has tens of thousands of lines of code, it’s not really a reasonable plan to go back and update everything for the latest version of the library. So, I end up watching all the new hotness from the sidelines.
It seems to me that the projects that create these libraries are sympathetic to this problem. Documentation for the old version seems to go down almost immediately and is supplanted by the new version. That’s great for people on the bleeding edge, but what about use poor folks that are too invested in the old version to upgrade on day one? This is especially irritating in some discussion groups where the answer to any question is always “why are you using that version? just upgrade your code.”
Photos from Amsterdam are online. I haven’t had time to re-touch any of them yet.At some point last night, there was an error on the file system on my server. MySQL shutdown and all websites that depend on it became inaccessible. It took only a couple hours to work with the support team to have my server restarted and the file sytem issue corrected.
I keep regular backups of all the data and none of the sites running on this box are mission critical, so I wasn’t really too concerned. One thing that was rather troubling, though, was the fact that I use my site as a redirector to my OpenID provider. If my blog is down, I can’t log in to some services. This is a troubling side effect to using OpenID.
One of my projects for this weekend will be to setup a monitoring system on my mac mini so I will be notified of any irregularities before they become a problem.
Amsterdam is beautiful. The buildings, the culture, the people. Beautiful. Many people think first of the very liberal laws when they think of Amsterdam. Gambling is legal here. As is prostitution. Marijuana is illegal, strictly speaking, but it’s accepted and the laws are unenforced. This leads people to think of the city as a wild haven for debauchery and degeneracy. This really couldn’t be farther form the truth.
The way I see it, they have it right. All of these vices exist pretty much everywhere in the world. Locations that legalize, tax, and regulate these activities instead of standing on a moral high horse and trying to stop them, appear to have far fewer problems stemming from them. I’m not trying to say I endorse these activities, but I’m also pleased to be in a place where the government does not stand in judgment of those who do. Marijuana use is so common place here that the only people I noticed abusing the privilege were americans or otherly tourists.
The incidence of violent crime here is insanely small. Being pick-pocketed is the biggest worry. People here are more tolerant of race and sexual orientation than any other place I’ve been to.
There are a few things I didn’t like about my visit here. The largest complaint is that people smoke everywhere, though I hear this is going to be changing in the coming summer. There’s too much mayonnaise. Everything is served with mayo. It’s gross. And this last complaint may be specific to people with large feet; the stairs are too small. This place is the land of tiny stairs. They’re über steep and half the depth of the stairs I’m used to. I can only fit the front third of my foot on a step.
Amsterdam is a beautiful, quiet, and safe city. Most everyone here speaks english. I would highly recommend anybody traveling through Europe set aside a couple days to visit Amsterdam.
Work day. Woke up late. I wandered around the city a bit while looking for meals, but otherwise, we stayed in the apartment and worked.
The first real (non-trial) deployment of OLPCs looks like it was a smashing success. Over a thousand children in Uruguay received the devices over a period of three days.
The Give 1 Get 1 program has been extended to December 31st. It’s a unique opportunity to take part in an amazing piece of history. This is an ambitious project that could have an incredible impact on the future of developing nations.
I’ll be getting my OLPC from one of the first shipments to Give 1 Get 1 participants. This is a program I’m proud to support.
Woke up really early. Still figuring out the time difference. Since everybody else was still asleep, I wandered around the neighborhood with my camera for a while and had some breakfast, poffertjes and sausage.
Spent most of the day working. Got out for lunch and a couple of beers. Heineken seems to be the only thing you can get around here. Not surprising, since the factory is just a few blocks down the canal.
Grabbed a quick dinner at Wok to Walk on the way to the bars. It was a Sunday night, so there weren’t too many people out. Got back to the apartment around 4am.
My plane landed a bit early. It was 7:30ish, am. It was almost exactly 24 hours ahead of when I got on the plane, including the time difference. I opted to stay up all night before the flight and try to sleep through most of the flights. I think it worked pretty well, but I was still exhausted by 6pm or so.
Most eateries I’ve been in to are cash only, which meant I couldn’t eat until one of the exchange places opened at like 10:00. When they did, I had a croissant and a cup of coffee. We passed by a McDonalds and decided to go in and see what’s different. We had the McKroket, which is essentially a breaded and fried patty of beef gravy. It’s then slathered on mayonnaise which looks like it’s got whole mustard seeds in it.
Worked through most of the day. My throat is still a bit sore from the few hours we spent in a “coffee shop” doing some brainstorming. I only had actual coffee, but the room was thick with second hand smoke.
We had dinner at some miscellaneous place that we ducked into because it was freezing out. I can’t believe how much butter and mayo they have on everything here. I ordered a plate of these tiny pancakes that were maybe 1 inch across. They were served with a hearty dose of powdered sugar and about forty-thousand calories worth of butter, which had been haphazardly slapped onto the plate. Everything we had was very good, though I didn’t try the fries that were swimming in mayo.
We walked through the red light district on the way back to the apartment. It’s a very bizarre area. It’s got about as much foot traffic as any other area of the city. Most of the people seem unfazed by the goings ons. Other than some very graphic advertisements on the street and the red glow coming from most of the storefronts, it’s really that different from the rest of the city. That is, unless you walk down one of the alleyways where prostitutes stand in the windows in their skivvies and beckon you to come in and join them. A very unusual kind of window shopping.
We were supposed to go out tonight, but I fell asleep around 8. I have no idea if anybody else went out or even if they’re here now.