My kids and I have access to a pair of XO laptops, from the One Laptop Per Child program at the MIT media lab. I’d seen & held one before, so I knew what to expect from the physical form factor. We’ve since been coming to terms with the software.
So far, my kids favorite “activity” (new jargon — something like a combination of application and file) has been TamTamSynth, which lets you make weird sounds (most of the time) and Measure, which is basically an oscilloscope. I should have known how much fun an oscilloscope could be. It’s the first time I’ve actually encouraged my son to experiment with the high and loud portions of his range.
Anyhow, I had to compromise a bit to get them online, and drop the encryption from my home wifi network. I couldn’t figure out how to enter a password successfully. Now that I’m online with the XO, I’m impressed with how much the same the surfing experience is. I was really surprised to find Flash working. Right now, I’m playing ABCD Watermelon on the Between the Lions web site.
Unfortunately, Flash video (like on the Peep web site) doesn’t seem to work. There’s a Flash movie on the Adobe web site that reports what version of Flash you have (click on the “about” tab) and its says 9,0,31,0 — so I’m not sure what the problem is. Perhaps it’s a open-source Linux version of the plug-in that doesn’t support video?
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