X-Git-Url: https://pere.pagekite.me/gitweb/homepage.git/blobdiff_plain/e691aa27c0865ad377ac34a9b40aa6692e82fa7b..950a77798142b8f088c93fbf10da02a324969695:/blog/index.rss diff --git a/blog/index.rss b/blog/index.rss index 9f17a118f1..2e5e1119be 100644 --- a/blog/index.rss +++ b/blog/index.rss @@ -6,6 +6,39 @@ http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ + + Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html + http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html + Fri, 3 Jul 2015 07:10:00 +0200 + <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a +replacement soon. The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230 +started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken +cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the +flickering.</p> + +<p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is +still as +<a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I +described them in 2013</a>. The last time I bought a laptop, I had +good help from +<a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a> +where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin, +wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually. Three button mouse +and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three +laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and +G2) lack three mouse buttonsf. It is also unclear to me how good the +keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are. I hope Lenovo have not messed up +the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have +deteriorated since X41.</p> + +<p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options +seem sensible to me? Are there better services around to search the +set of available laptops for features? Please send me an email if you +have suggestions.</p> + + + MakerCon Nordic videos now available on Frikanalen http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/MakerCon_Nordic_videos_now_available_on_Frikanalen.html @@ -1053,193 +1086,5 @@ You rock. - - Debian Edu interview: Shirish Agarwal - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html - http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Shirish_Agarwal.html - Wed, 15 Apr 2015 09:20:00 +0200 - <p>It was a surprise to me to learn that project to create a complete -computer system for schools I've involved in, -<a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, was -being used in India. But apparently it is, and I managed to get an -interview with one of the friends of the project there, Shirish -Agarwal.</p> - -<p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p> - -<p>My name is Shirish Agarwal. Based out of the educational and -historical city of Pune, from the western state of Maharashtra, India. -My bread comes from giving training, giving policy tips, -installations on free software to mom and pop shops in different -fields from Desktop publishing to retail shops as well as work with -few software start-ups as well.</p> - -<p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu -project?</strong></p> - -<p>It started innocently enough. I have been using Debian for a few -years and in one local minidebconf / debutsav I was asked if there was -anything for schools or education. I had worked / played with free -educational softwares such as Gcompris and Stellarium for my many -nieces and nephews so researched and found Debian Edu or Skolelinux as -it was known then. Since then I have started using the various -education meta-packages provided by the project.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>It's closest I have seen where a package full of educational -software are packed, which are free and open (both literally and -figuratively). Even if I take the simplest software which is -gcompris, the number of activities therein are amazing. Another one of -the softwares that I have liked for a long time is stellarium. Even -pysycache is cool except for couple of issues I encountered -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781841">#781841</a> and -<a href="https://bugs.debian.org/781842">#781842</a>.</p> - -<p>I prefer software installed on the system over web based solutions, -as a web site can disappear any time but the software on disk has the -possibility of a larger life span. Of course with both it's more a -question if it has enough users who make it fun or sustainable or both -for the developer per-se.</p> - -<p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian -Edu?</strong></p> - -<p>I do see that the Debian Edu team seems to be short-handed and I -think more efforts should be made to make it popular and ask and take -help from people and the larger community wherever possible.</p> - -<p>I don't see any disadvantage to use Skolelinux apart from the fact -that most apps. are generic which is good or bad how you see it. -However, saying that I do acknowledge the fact that the canvas is -pretty big and there are lot of interesting ideas that could be done -but for reasons not known not done or if done I don't know about them. -Let me share some of the ideas (these are more upstream based but -still) I have had for a long time :</p> - -<p>1. Classical maths question of two trains in opposing directions -each running @x kmph/mph at y distance, when they will meet and how -far would each travel and similar questions like these. - -<p>The computer is a fantastic system where questions like these can -be drawn, animated and the methodology and answers teased out in -interactive manner. While sites such as the -<a href="http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.two.trains.html">Ask -Dr. Math FAQ on The Two Trains problem</a> (as an example or point of -inspiration) can be used there is lot more that can be done. I dunno -if there is a free software which does something like this. The idea -being a blend of objects + animation + interaction which does -this. The whole interaction could be gamified with points or sounds or -colourful celebration whenever the user gets even part of the question -or/and methodology right. That would help reinforce good behaviour. -This understanding could be used to share/showcase everything from how -the first wheel came to be, to evolution to how astronomy started, -psychics and everything in-between.</p> - -<p>One specific idea in the train part was having the Linux mascot on -one train and the BSD or GNU mascot on the other train and they -meeting somewhere in-between. Characters from blender movies could -also be used.</p> - -<p>2. Loads of crossword-puzzles with reference to subjects: We have -enormous data sets in Wikipedia and Wikitionary. I don't think it -should be a big job to design crossword puzzles. Using categories and -sub-categories it should be doable to have Q&A single word answers -from the existing data-sets. What would make it easy or hard could be -the length of the word + existence of many or few vowels depending on -the user's input.</p> - -<p>3. Jigsaw puzzles - We already have a great software called -palapeli with number of slicers making it pretty interesting. What -needs to be done is to download large number of public domain and -copyleft images, tease and use IPTC tags to categorise them into -nature, history etc. and let it loose. This could turn to be really -huge collection of images. One source could be taken from -commons.wikimedia.org, others could be huge collection of royalty-free -stock photos. Potential is immense.</p> - -<p>Apart from this, free software suffers in two directions, we lag -both in development (of using new features per-se) and maintenance a -lot. This is more so in educational software as these applications -need to be timely and the opportunity cost of missing deadlines is -immense. If we are able to solve issues of funding for development and -maintenance of such software I don't see any big difficulties. I know -of few start-ups in and around India who would love to develop and -maintain such software if funding issues could be solved.</p> - -<p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p> - -<p>That would be huge list. Some of the softwares are obviously apt, -aptitude, debdelta, leafpad, the shell of course (zsh nowadays), -quassel for IRC. In games I use shisen-sho while card-games are evenly -between kpat and Aiselriot. In desktops it's a tie between -gnome-flashback and mate.</p> - -<p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to -get schools to use free software?</strong></p> - -<p>I think it should first start with using specific FOSS apps. in -whatever environment they are. If it's MS-Windows or Mac so be it. -Once they are habitual with the apps. and there is buy-in from the -school management then it could be installed anywhere. Most of the -people now understand the concept of a repository because of the -various online stores so it isn't hard to convince on that front.</p> - -<p>What is harder is having enough people with technical skills and -passion to service them. If you get buy-in from one or two teachers -then ideas like above could also be asked to be done as a project as -well.</p> - -<p>I think where we fall short more than anything is in marketing. For -instance, Debian has this whole range of fonts in its archive but -there isn't even a page where all those different fonts in the La -Ipsum format could be tried out for newcomers.</p> - -<p>One of the issues faced constantly in installations is with updates -and upgrades. People have this myth that each update and upgrade -means the user interface will / has to change. I have seen this -innumerable times. That perhaps is one of the reasons which browsers -like Iceweasel / Firefox change user interfaces so much, not because -it might be needed or be functional but because people believe that -changed user interfaces are better. This, can easily be pointed with -the user interfaces changed with almost every MS-Windows and Mac OS -releases.</p> - -<p>The problems with Debian Edu for deployment are many. The biggest -is the huge gap between what is taught in schools and what Debian Edu -is aimed at. - -<p>Me and my friends did teach on week-ends in a government school for -around 2 years, and -<a href="https://flossexperiences.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/sharings/">gathered -some experience</a> there. Some of the things we learnt/discovered -there was :</p> - -<ol> - - <li>Most of the teachers are very territorial about their subjects - and they do not want you to teach anything out of the - portion/syllabus given.</li> - - <li>They want any activity on the system in accordance to whatever - is in the syllabus.</li> - - <li>There are huge barriers both with the English language and at - times with objects or whatever. An example, let's say in gcompris - you have objects falling down and you have to name them and let's - say the falling object is a hat or a fedora hat, this would not be - as recognizable as say a - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puneri_Pagadi">Puneri - Pagdi</a> so there is need to inject local objects, words wherever - possible. Especially for word-games there are so many hindi words - which have become part of english vocabulary (for instance in - parley), those could be made into a hinglish collection or - something but that is something for upstream to do.</li> - -</ol> - - -