[Noisebridge-discuss] a little bit of info on the excel program, and an idea to move forward

[jim]

   i'm pretty much out of town as of a couple of 
days ago, to return mid-may 20090514). 
   after i return i can loan an eee or an XO box 
(or both). 
jim 



On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 19:38 -0700, Michael Shiloh wrote:
> 
> Andy Isaacson wrote:
> 
> > The whole Arduino package is around 30 MB, including the IDE and
> > everything.  I doubt it'd be OK to run on a 128MB machine, but 512MB
> > will be fine.  (Unfortunately Ubuntu has abandoned the low-end, you
> > can't even run the 8.10 installer in 128MB.)  I bet you can do a
> > bootable Ubuntu+Arduino thumb drive in 512MB.
> 
> We can certainly avoid Ubuntu for one of the less demanding options like 
> Puppy or DSL or even Xubuntu, but if the Arduino IDE and Ubuntu are both 
> happy with 512MB we may as stick with the default.
> 
> Does anyone have an underpowered laptop with only 512MB? The first 
> experiment would be to make sure you can boot from a live Linux CD. I 
> can provide one if you don't have, or can't create one. Booting off USB 
> thumb drive would be an extra benefit, but probably only works on more 
> recent laptops. I'm trying to determine the low end here.
> 
> Does anyone else agree this is a useful path to follow? If we can bring 
> Arduino to the class at the price of a $12 RBBB plus assorted components 
> and a discarded laptop, I think that would be immensely cool. If we can 
> control something that will impress high school students, like a high 
> powered light (no, we are not using lasers) on a pan/tilt mechanism 
> (servo motors), or car horns, or a subwoofer, we may just be able to 
> interest those folks who would benefit the most from our program.
> 
> We have only about 5 days left to finish our proposal. I'm having a 
> really hard time getting any concrete answers. The best advice I've 
> heard so far is to aim for the sky, and allow for the program to be 
> reduced to bring the price into what they can afford. To this end, I'm 
> in favor of proposing the Arduino project.
> 
> 
> > 
> >> Netbooks are also somewhat fragile, so the price would have to consider 
> > 
> > My Eee 900 is a lot *less* fragile than my Thinkpad X40 or any Dell I've
> > ever touched.  I think nothing of throwing it in my shoulder bag without
> > a sleeve.  The smaller monitor means less leverage on the hinge.
> 
> Excellent point. I'm sure the solid state disk is less fragile as well, 
> and the cheaper price makes it less fragile in a monetary sense. I'll 
> have to check my original source.
> 
> 
> > 
> > Also, Arduino should run OK on OLPC's XO-1.  Now *there*'s an intriguing
> > idea...
> 
> 
> Hmmm!!!!!!!
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