Into the Void

http://www.laptop.org/

It’s here, the ideal gift for early adopters.

We’ve been hearing about the $100 Laptop for months now. It seemed like a pipe dream. A laptop for children in third world countries? It would have to be an engineering marvel. The kids often live in houses with dirt floors. They often don’t have electricity. Internet infrastructure – or even telephone service – is non-existent in rural towns. They’ve probably never seen a computer before. They’ll have to learn the OS and the software without the a priori assumptions of a Westerner. Getting computer teachers trained has to be a logistical nightmare! How can this possibly work?

The answer is one that wouldn’t occur to most of us… Cooperation on a global scale!

It’s the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. This program attempted to design, build and distribute laptops for under $100 to children in third world countries.

In December OLPC had a promotion where if you donated a laptop you could buy a second laptop. PLUS you get a year of free Sprint wifi access at places like Barnes & Noble, St*rbucks, etc. that you can also use with any other wifi devices you may own – laptops and PDAs. The Sprint access alone is worth the price of the laptop.

The XO has totally new hardware with VERY low power consumption. The XO has a very cool GUI called “Sugar” that’s usuable even by kids who can’t read yet, much less read English. Sugar is based on a trimmed down Linux OS with programs written just for it. Programs like a music synthesizer, Turtle Graphics, word processing, a web browser and that’s just the START of it!

Since The XO is intended for third world countries, it has wifi – no ethernet infrastructure is necessary. They’ll automatically connect at power up to other XOs that they find. This enables the kids to work on collaborative projects. Not just chatrooms, but writing music together in the music workspace! Collaboration is the key to the future.

The XO has two antennas and uses them to triangulate and display a 2D map of surrounding XOs and wireless access points. It took a while and I had to change some of my router settings, but I was able to connect to the Internet with my XO.

There is an available hand crank to charge the XO if you don’t have electricity in your village. I think they said there’s a solar battery charger available too. They also have wireless teacher access points that enable the kids to get on the Internet and see what’s going on in the rest of the world. This is a really ambitious project. I did what I could.

I’ll post an update if the Give One – Get One program runs again. Your donation is partly tax deductible. And you’re doing something good for less fortunate kids. It’s a win-win game.

Flush with my recent success running Tiki Wiki under Windows XP SP2, I thought it might be fun to try Subdreamer, too. Subdreamer is a Content Management System and is different from a Wiki mainly in the way it organizes and presents data. Subdreamer has the advantage of allowing me to integrate my phpBB forum into it so that my current users have the same user id and password on the new CMS.
In case anyone else wants to smear Linux web apps all over their harddrive, it’s not very hard to do. In this article I’ll walk you through the four main tasks required to evaluate the Subdreamer CMS on a Windows XP box.
You will be using an application called PhpTriad. PhpTriad contains Windows versions of the ubiquitous Apache server with PHP support, MySQL database software, and phpMyadmin. You’ll have no trouble at all getting PhpTriad running.
Next you’ll get the free version of Subdreamer and unzip it onto your hard drive. If you want more functionality when you take your CMS on-line you can buy the full version later.
Then you’ll run the MySQL software and use phpmyadmin to set up the MySql database where the Subdreamer CMS will store the contents of your web site.
Finally, you’ll open the Subdreamer installation file in your browser, work a little magic, and there you’ll be. It’s a little tricky, but I’ve made the mistakes several times so I’ll try to point out the gotchas before you make them.

Ok, let’s do it.

Download and install PhpTriad.

1. Download and save phptriad r2.2 from the project pages at http://www.sourceforge.net/phptriad/ on SourceForge.
2. Run phptriad2-2-1.exe.
3. When the install is done, run PHPTriad -> Apache Console -> Start Apache from the start menu like any other Windows app. A command window named “Start
   Apache” opens. Minimize the Apache window, but don’t exit the program. Apache is now listening on port 80 for browser requests.
4. Open your browser to http://localhost/ and you’ll see the PhpTriad welcome screen. Great!

Download Subdreamer Light.

1. Register on the Subdreamer site at http://www.subdreamer.com/, then log in. Go to http://www.subdreamer.com/light/, download the Subdreamer Light .zip file
2. Extract it into C:\apache\htdocs\. This will create directory C:\apache\htdocs\Subdreamer_Light_2202. Go into this directory, find the directory named upload and move it up to C:\apache\htdocs.
3. In directory C:\apache\htdocs\subdreamer\includes\, make a copy of the file config.php.new. Rename this file config.php.
4. Important! Check the properties of folder subdreamer and uncheck Read-only if it’s checked.

Configure a database for Subdreamer.

1. From the start menu run PHPTriad -> MySQL -> MYSQL-D-NT.
2. When you point your browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin you’ll see the phpMyAdmin welcome page. It’s pretty much self-explanatory.
3. Point your browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and create a new database named sdcms.
4. Point your browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and Reload MySQL. It is very important to reload the SQL by revisiting http://localhost/phpmyadmin after every command, so check that out if things don’t work.
5. Point your browser to http://localhost/phpmyadmin and go to Users.
6. Select database scms in the pulldown menu Check Database Privileges. Now add a new user sdadmin and with password sdpasswd. Give the user all privileges. Don’t forget to write down that password!

Install Subdreamer Light.

1. Run the Subdreamer installer by pointing your browser to http://localhost/subdreamer/install/install.php. Fill in the requested data:
      Database server hostname: localhost
   Database name: sdcms
   Database username: sduser
   Database password: sdpw
   Table Prefix: sd_
   Username: admin
   Password: changeme
   Confirm Password: changeme
   Email: you@your.com
   When you click “Install Subdreamer” it should take you to the “Installation Successfull!” page. Hooray!
2. Now delete the install directory and you’re ready to create your web site.
3. Go to the subdreamer admin panel at http://localhost/subdreamer/admin/ and log in as user admin with password changeme. You will be prompted (via a pink error message) to enter the full URL for your Subdreamer installation. It is http://localhost/subdreamer/

And that’s it! Experiment with settings, post entries, create and delete users. Subdreamer is suitable for a small to medium website, and that is why it is so easy to use. If you like Subdreamer, by all means buy the full version.
Just remember to periodically export the sdcms database via http://localhost/phpmyadmin. Not only does it protect your data from late-night errors, and there will be errors, but when you decide to go live with Subdreamer you can reuse your local data on-line. Your web host will likely also use phpMyAdmin and you can follow the same steps to create the database, and then import the file.

I was babbling about the early days, before the web and search engines. Remember Archie and Gopher servers? And WAIS and Veronica? It was *still* hard to find what you wanted.
The first search engine I came across, I mean the first *spider* type, was Lycos at CMU. Except back then there was no fancy news page, just a picture of a hairy spider and a box to type the search term in. But still, what a thrill that was!
You newbies don’t know how good you’ve got it…
I don’t even bother to read news portals any more unless for some reason I want to kill time. It’s far faster to subscribe to newsfeeds and read them in a news aggregator. You can even subscribe to lots of special-interest site feeds so that you don’t have to wade through pages of irrelevant information. If something looks useful, then click and read the article.
There are some nice RSS apps – news aggregators – that run on the Windows desktop. I will look into RSS apps for Linux. Is there a Linux Firefox? That might do it. The Windows version allows you to create “live bookmarks” that contain all the items in the RSS file.
I prefer to use a speedy stand-alone news aggregator called AmphetaDesk. They don’t have a linux version, but you can download the source and try to compile it yourself. akregator is a news aggregator for Linux. It’s on SourceForge, which is a great place to download useful, sometimes intriguing open-source applications.

This is what Amphetadesk looks like in use. I can blow through the headlines for specialized topics on what, 90 web pages? in less than ten minutes, then click on anything I want to read more about. Tell me this isn’t way easier than watching fifteen minutes of house fires and muggings just to find out whether the rest of the world still exists.
If you get an RSS reader, you can download my .opml file, which contains all of my subscriptions, and your reader will import them.
Most websites using Content Management Systems (CMS) of some sort – including blogging software like WordPress – offer feeds. Look for the little orange button.
Now that we’ve talked about RSS feeds, let’s move on and talk about how to create the Extensible Markup Language (XML) file that comprises an RSS feed.

Update 11/6:

My buddy Jim gave me some good hints on getting the Wifi card running on the laptop under Linux. He has his own Wifi tale of terror. Plus he pointed out that I can compile the driver, drop it into the file system, then use modprobe to tell Linux to look for it. Great!
XP is up and running. I am in the process of re-installing software. It refused to upgrade Windows 2000 Professional to Windows XP Professional so I had to install XP in a different directory, which happened to be the default directory for XP. It didn’t bring in any of the settings. I was afraid it would clobber user Application Data so I created a new user and am copying settings from the 2000 user to the XP user, like Eudora mailboxes. What a pain in the @55.
Now the computer is dual-boot, which isn’t at all what I wanted. During the install, XP warned me I couldn’t do a dual-boot system in the same partition. WTF? Of course, if I *wanted* a dual-boot system, XP probably would have shredded the existing file system. Sometime in the next week I’ll figure out what to change to uninstall 2000.
On the plus side, I backed up a lot of data to CD/DVD before starting, and then I cloned the hard drive. Just in case. I’ll install it in the other computer, which is currently doing a fine impression of a doorstop, if XP doesn’t implode in the next week. Then I can use *that* to recover the data from the original hard drive from that computer, which is currently doing an impression of a paperweight.
I’d have to change mobo drivers, among other things, to use it in the other computer. Might require a repair installation of Windows 2000. Did I mention that this whole process is a pain in the @55?

Plus I started using a Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse Wireless Optical Desktop Pro last week. The mouse is huge and is shaped to provide an easy, solid handhold. Unfortunately, that means that it’s hard to shift it around in my hand as I use it. Reorienting the mouse as you work is a way to prevent Repetitive Stress Injuries (RSIs), and this mouse forces me to use it in a way that is guaranteed to make my hand ache. Which it did. Well, I’m aware of it now. Maybe I can rig something up with an old mouse shell and this ones guts.
Update 11/10:
Mr. X, who has hands the size of catcher’s mitts, has no problem using the wireless mouse.

I’ve been dragging my feet as far as the soon-to-be Linux Laptop goes. There are a couple of issues that I haven’t quite resolved.

First, Knoppix came up in the GUI. It didn’t seem to support the wireless card. But it communicated with it, which is better than Windows 98 did.

I found what might be the ADM8211 chipset driver on SourceForge, then promptly lost the info again. I’m unclear on how to integrate a new driver. Do I have to recompile the kernal – which I’ve never done – or can I simply compile it as a stand-alone driver that I drop into place somewhere in the file system? Maybe a reference goes in what in uCLinux is called (I think) /etc/.rc? That file has startup info for things like ipconfig. I can prevent it from coming up in the GUI by entering a run-level command in /etc/inittab.

RH 5.2 used to come up with the command line and if I wanted to play with the GUI I’d type startx. I did it for my Senior Project, upgraded a trash computer and used it for software development from the command line. I have the notes here somewhere… The *first* gotcha was that I was trying to use an unsupported CD. You get the idea. But eventually it all cooperated.

Anyway, I’m told that Fedora changes too fast, still requires too much babysitting. Apparently Centos 4.2 uses the source code from Red Hat Enterprise Linux. That might work.

The laptop has no way to cut a new CD. Oh, wait, that’s vinyl talk. *Burn* a new CD. So if an install CD is needed, I would have to transfer the image – a .iso maybe? – to a Windows computer to burn it. I would have to get to the other computer by dial-up modem through one of the free services. Egads!

I am aware that some OSs allow you to update the kernel on the fly. The name of the capability escapes me. Preemptible kernel, is it?

I’m going to attempt to upgrade the Windows 2000 computer to Windows XP this weekend. Believe me, Windows 2000 is solid as a rock, Which is probably why Microsoft is no longer selling it. In XP Home which I use at work (go figure), I had to disable a lot of unnecessary things to stop it from hanging when I opened a couple of windows. Who needs shadows under the cursor, 3D everything, and font smoothing? It made a big difference. The only reason I’m upgrading to XP Professional (not Home) – actually it’s a lateral move – is because I bought a USB printer with a card reader and it turns out I had already boffed up those drivers trying to install an internal 9-in-1 card reader. I removed some of the boffed-up stuff from the registry, but haven’t tried to reinstall the printer. Obviously I’m not particularly confident it will work. To that end, I have already backed up all the really necessary stuff, except email which I will backup last thing before I do the install.

I know what I have to do, the questions are mostly things I can work out through trial-and-error. I’m confident that I will eventually get the laptop running Linux AND this computer running Windows XP. I must make a couple of decisions and then “Just Do It”.

The continuing saga of the Linux Laptop…
The battery wasn’t warranted, so I didn’t expect it to work. It didn’t. I ordered a new battery on ebay, should be in early next week. S’okay, I have an AC adapter to use until then.
I borrowed a LinkSys WUSB11 USB network I/F from work to try under Windows 98. Alas, I didn’t have the right USB cable.
The next day I borrowed the correct cable. Alas, I lost my router in the power failure that morning. It was the only computer accessory in the room that wasn’t on a surge suppressor. Of course, my new surge suppressor is in there in the box waiting for me to set it up. Eh.
So anyway, I ordered a new wireless router, a USRobotics USR8054. This is what I had, and I liked it. Very easy-to-use interface – with online help. Good deal! I also ordered a combination floppy disk/flash reader that caught my eye. It has to work in one of the computers, right? And just to be thorough, a Belkin F5D6020 Wireless Notebook Network Card for when I return the WUSB11. There were a couple of articles on how to get PCMCIA network cards to work with similar laptops.
I can see that this is going to be one of those easy projects that turn into an expensive pain in the butt. My favorite kind.

Update: The laptop arrived and it knows both that it is a Compaq and that it currently is running Windows 98. I’ll spend a bit of time documenting the hardware configuration and obtaining drivers before starting the conversion to Linux.
To reiterate, I bought an ancient laptop from Bob Johnson.com – a Compaq Presario 1235 laptop – for $199. It’s old and slow, but I ran servers on a 486DX2/66 in 1999-2000 so I don’t think it will be a problem. The tricky part will be getting a network card to work.
I found a site with instructions on installing Red Hat and getting drivers for this model laptop. I may have an old 5.2 install CD around somewhere. I also have 8.something, but that’s 5 CDs and cutting it kind of close for a laptop that only has a 4G hard drive.
Anyway, here are the details:

Compaq Presario 1235
AMD K6 – a blistering 266Mhz Processor. 12 inch Dual Scan display. Whopping 4 Gig hard drive. 96 meg of memory. 24x CDROM. Floppy. PCMCIA Slot. Built in sound and speakers. TrackPad – good I can’t stand those little clit mice. Parallel, Serial, and USB ports. Ultra-fast 56k Modem. Includes the AC adapter and an unwarranted battery. Featherweight 7 lbs. Windows 98
Warranty: Lifetime Limited Warranty
Compaq brings you the future of Internet notebook PC technology for an unbeatable value with the Presario 1235 Internet PC. Everything is built right into its easy-to-use, intuitive design – including a fast AMD-K6 MMX Enhanced Processor, 24X CD-ROM drive.

I’m considering getting a Linux laptop. Now that Red Hat has been seduced to the Dark side, Fedora it will be.
I get the scratch-and-dent email from BobJohnson.com and I’m hopeful that there will be a suitable laptop soon. And that they will actually be able to ship it to me this time.