RSS Feeds
Computers
Windows XP On OLPC Gets Slowly Tested
Posted by John Mahoney at 12:30 AM on August 7, 2008
We showed you the first footage of an OLPC booting the official Windows XP installation back in June, but now Laptop has given the XP-sporting XO a quick round of testing, and unsurprisingly, things are a bit sluggish. The XO's hardware has gone unchanged for the XP edition, so Windows boots off of an SD card which also packs Office, IE, and other apps. While IE fired up in five seconds, the OS took 1 minute 24 seconds to boot, and no one should be surprised that multitasking on the little guy's 256MB of RAM was not fun. Mesh networking is also not making it to the Windows version, unfortunately, but kids can still dual-boot into the Sugar OS for that. [Laptop]
This is the first footage of the same XO OLPC doing a dual-boot of Sugar Linux and Windows XP—something skeptics have said wasn't going to happen. Soon, XOs will ship with both Sugar and XP for Boot Camp-style dual-booting options. They will never come with only XP, though the team is working on adding more of the Sugar functionality, like the mesh network and the fun sharing apps, to the Windows side. Once again, little PCs are 
Intel's for-profit take on the OLPC concept will soon share a UI with its spiritual predecessor. Walter Bender, the guy who made the original child-friendly Sugar interface with the OLPC project, told PC Magazine that Sugar will be adapted to the Classmate PC. Intel had previously disassociated themselves with the OLPC program because they really wanted to continue developing the Classmate. Because I guess earning money from the emerging world is more satisfying and because, you know, Intel needs more. That and more gas on the OLPC and Classmate flame war. [
Even though the XO Laptop's Sugar-coated OS 
Most diabetics are tough enough to routinely test their blood without crying about it (the alternative to death is certainly a good one), but Tanita has announced a portable digital urine glucose meter for those with sugar-management diseases like diabetes and metabolic syndrome that needs no blood.
The founder and chairman of OLPC has admitted that only using open-source software has not been good for the project. Just a day after the resignation of group president Walter Bender, Nicholas Negroponte admitted that the choice of the Sugar operating system has hit the XO laptop project in two places: usability; and popularity.
Sony has announced a new fuel-cell battery that runs on glucose. It works by breaking down carbohydrates with enzymes, in much the same way as us humans do. It doesn't seem to be ready for release yet, but the video after the jump shows that it's already capable of powering an MP3 player.
Oh technology, how you've failed us. Human progress has come so far, yet is this the best we can do? Cereal straws? Little tubes of Froot Loops that are lined with gross powdered milk? They should call these things Diabetes Helpers; at least then you'd know what you were getting yourself into when you bought them. Want a firsthand account of the horror? Walk with me.
