Re: Interested in the Google Summer of Code

[Don Hopkins]

That's a wonderful idea, and I encourage you to pursue it!
Alan Kay was suggesting doing something like that to document and model 
the behavior of SimCity (aka Micropolis), so kids can understand and 
modify it.


I've posted some stuff on the OLPC wiki and my blog about that:
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Summer_of_Code/Ideas
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis
http://www.DonHopkins.com

I'd be glad to discuss it further with you!

   -Don


Bobby Powers wrote:
Hi, I'm a master's student at the University of Bergen and I'm 
interested in bringing System Dynamics to the XO.  Before I start, if 
there is a better mailing list for this just let me know (I briefly 
looked through the other ones liked from the Wiki, and this seemed the 
most appropriate).


System Dynamics (SD) [1][2] aims to help people understand the world 
by explicitly modeling how pieces of it work and then performing 
experiments in these models.  It is used around the world, frequently 
in majority world countries, in development planning [3], for example. 
 More formally, its a methodology for examining and describing the 
behavior of complex systems with an emphasis on the effects that 
feedback loops and time delays have.  At a basic level you have to 
specify the mathematical equations for the different parts of your 
system.   The same problems can be solved by writing code in a 
programming language (I had a course taught in Fortran a year ago...), 
but usually in SD the modeling is done using a visual editor where you 
can show causal relationships, stocks and flows graphically.  I 
personally think the biggest short-fallings of the discipline are the 
barriers to entry: the current software is far from intuitive and all 
the major commercial offerings (there are no FLOSS products) [4][5][6] 
are very expensive (educational licenses alone are frequently > $500 
USD). 

Will Wright studied SD and used ideas from it when designing SimCity 
[7].  So I have several things I would like to work on:  first is a 
core simulator that can transform equations into code (I'm currently 
working on this for my master's thesis, but don't have and funding. 
eesh): I'm using the JIT library from the LLVM project to be able to 
do this.  Second I want to create a Sugar modeling interface that 
makes it easy and fun to create models and explore their results 
(collaboratively, I hope!), and third I want to hook this into 
Metropolis.  I think it would just be so cool if you could click an 
icon in Metropolis and have the visual model that controls the 
Metropolis world pop up (in the aforementioned editor) and be able not 
only to fiddle with parameters, but change the structure!  If all of 
this goes smoothly and there is more time, I would love to add the 
ability for models to interact with and manipulate geospatial data.



I guess I am looking for people's reaction, is this something people 
like?  I'm certainly willing to adapt myself to the collective needs 
and I wanted to get a discussion started before the application 
deadline.  Oh I guess a little more background on me:  I attended RPI 
in NY, USA for 2 years studying computer engineering, but transferred 
because I wanted to do something more applied.  I 
studied environmental studies (at SUNY ESF) for a couple years, and 
got back into coding through classes on ecological modeling and GIS. 
 I've been pretty heavily coding models, algorithms and interfaces for 
the past 2 years, mainly in C#, ObjC and some Fortran, but the past 3 
months I've been using C++ for 8 hours a day and Python here and 
there.  I've got a Mac with Linux (both FC8 and openSUSE10.3) and 
Windows, and I've just started over the past few weeks to pick up GTK, 
although I've used Cairo in a project for a couple months.  I've only 
dabbled with the XO, but am really looking forward to developing 
bundles for it.



I'm eager to hear what you think! 
yours,

Bobby Powers


[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_dynamics
[2] http://www.systemdynamics.org/
[3] http://www.millenniuminstitute.net/
[4] http://www.vensim.com/
[5] http://www.powersim.com/
[6] http://www.iseesystems.com/
[7] http://www.futuresalon.org/2004/11/will_wright_kic.html


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Re: [sugar] where is Walter?

[Don Hopkins]

Edward Cherlin wrote:
> Basically, the impression that outsiders get is of imperial rule
> by Nicholas Negroponte, with no sense that the workers or the public
> deserve to be informed of anything until after the decisions have all
> been made, and made wrongly.
>   
What's so imperial about the United State's occupation of Iraq and 
pending invasions of Iran and the Hague? 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarcasm_mark]

Oh sorry, I had Nicholas confused with his brother, John.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Negroponte
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20040806.htm
http://public.cq.com/public/20060303_homeland.html
http://www.mayispeakfreely.org/index.php?gSec=doc&doc_id=10

-Don

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Re: Spreadsheets

[Don Hopkins]

I would love to see something like Geometer's Sketchpad (based on ideas 
from Ivan Sutherland's original Sketchpad) on the OLPC.


http://www.dynamicgeometry.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sketchpad

"Sketchpad was a revolutionary computer program written by Ivan 
Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis. It helped change the 
way people interact with computers. Sketchpad is considered to be the 
ancestor of modern computer-aided drafting (CAD) programs as well as a 
major breakthrough in the development of computer graphics in general. 
Ivan Sutherland demonstrated with it that computer graphics could be 
utilized for both artistic and technical purposes in addition to showing 
a novel method of human-computer interaction."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometer%27s_Sketchpad

"The Geometer's Sketchpad is a popular commercial interactive geometry 
software program for exploring Euclidean geometry, algebra, calculus, 
and other areas of mathematics. It was created by Nicholas Jackiw. It is 
designed to run on Windows 95 or Windows NT 4.0 or later and Mac OS 8.6 
or later (including Mac OS X). It also runs on Linux under Wine with few 
minor bugs.


Geometer's Sketchpad includes the traditional Euclidean tools of 
classical Geometric constructions; that is, if a figure (such as the 
pentadecagon) can be constructed with compass and straight-edge, it can 
also be constructed using this program. However, the program also allows 
users to employ transformations to "cheat," creating figures impossible 
to construct under the traditional compass-and-straight-edge rules (such 
as the regular nonagon)."


   -Don


Steve Fullerton wrote:
A very simplified spreadsheet on the OLPC machine would be nothing 
more than a teacher's blackboard that is interactive.  E.g. the child 
can experiment/interact with the blackboard.  Traditionally, numbers 
are written on the board; solutions are given.  The ability of the 
student to manipulate these would be a great advance.  The bridge from 
rote learning to experimental learning.


This is something we are thinking about at UCSD.

On 5/31/07, *Yoshiki Ohshima* <[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> wrote:


  Michael,

> There are no plans for an official OLPC spreadsheet activity. At
> least, none that I have heard of (or could imagine). Largely
because 6
> year olds shouldn't have access to it.

  Can you explain why they shouldn't?

  Spreadsheet is a good way to experiment numbers and (usually)
provides simple rules to manipulate them.  Thinking about patterns and
relationships, it can be a pretty good tool.

  A built-in graph feature would be a plus, but it is also good way to
make them "draw" a graph by usign each cells as pixels.  Making a
graph feature should give them better understanding what a graph is.

  (For the making graph part, many kind of graphs can be done in Etoys
(and TurtleArt) by using the pen feature.  Etoys has a "holder"
object
that can hold a sequence of numbers as text, so you can do very
rudimentary spread sheet like thing by yourself...)

-- Yoshiki
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Re: eBook Reader user interface

[Don Hopkins]

; and "check toggled" state, then 
release to toggle it.


I heard a rumor that somebody had decided on some unique keycodes for 
the gamepad. Is that true? What are they? Once I know, I'll put them 
into the reader and put up a copy for people to try out. (Right now it 
requires opening a shell and running chmod as root to get it to work, 
which is kinda clumsy, but a great way to force kids to learn Linux, you 
gotta admit.)


   -Don


Zvi Devir wrote:
I have been collecting a few (more than a few) usability bugs and UI 
suggestions, which will hopefully be compiled to a list next month.


In the meanwhile, I would like to share a couple of ideas regarding the 
mapping of the gamepad keys [which I hope won't state the obvious too much].


Currently, the UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT keys have a fixed functionality 
regardless of the screen orientation. This isn't a correct logic, as the 
expected functionality changes according to the current orientation. I 
guess the easiest way to implement this kind of behavior would be using 
a smart key mapping mechanism in X.
Another thought -- the current input method treats those keys as 
direction keys. However, a better input method may be emulating the 
functionality of the mouse (touch pad) using the gamepad keys. In tablet 
mode this can really improve the user experience.


Just my $0.04.
Zvi


Don Hopkins wrote:
  

Goal for improving the eBook reader user interface:

  I've been doing some exploratory programming with GTK and Sugar,
  trying to improve the user interface of the eBook reader, and make
  it useable in book mode with the gamepad.

  + Support the game keypads in eBook mode. 


+ Low level game keypad support

  Need to remap low level keyboard scan codes to Linux keyboard codes. 


  The setolpckeys.c program remaps the keys and gamepad buttons.

Currently it maps both gamepads to the numeric keypad keys (KEY_KP8, 
etc),
which the X server and GDK translates to directional keys (GDK_Up, etc).

	I tried to map them to buttons (BTN_A, etc), but the X server seems 
	to ignore keycodes in that range. 

	The xorg.conf file has a keycode mask that looked like it might help, 
	but I couldn't get it to work. 

	Need to have unique keycodes reported for each of the two gamepads, 
	which are not the same as any keyboard keys, without any predefined meanings
	like arrow keys have. 


Need to define special purpose keycodes just for the OLPC gamepad,
	instead of trying to reuse existing but not appropriate keycodes. 


What is the process for defining new keycodes in ?

	Here's my strawman proposal for some new keycodes. 


  Use keys ("KEY_*") instead of buttons ("BTN_*"), since they
  seem to work better.

	  The 0x1b* range seems to be unused in , 
	  and it's between other groups of keycodes, so I'll
	  propose using that range for the OLPC. 


  The UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT keys correspond to the directional
  keypad.

  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_UP  0x1b0
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_DOWN0x1b1
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_LEFT0x1b2
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_RIGHT   0x1b3

  The NORTH/SOUTH/EAST/WEST keys correspond to the other
  buttons. Those names are agnostic to the button labels,
  which may change from the current Playstation buttons
  (X/O/Triangle/Square). Can anyone suggest better names for
  the four buttons on the right?

  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_NORTH   0x1b4
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_SOUTH   0x1b5
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_EAST0x1b6
  #define KEY_XO_GAMEPAD_WEST0x1b7

  While we're at it, we could define keycodes for the other
  OLPC buttons and switches on the screen. I think there are
  some other sensor switches that could generate keycodes,
  like opening the screen, rotating it around, and putting it
  into book mode, so I will make some guesses at names for
	  them, just to get the discussion rolling. 


  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_ROTATE   0x1b8
  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_POWER0x1b9
  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_OPEN 0x1ba
  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_CLOSE0x1bb
  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_IN   0x1bc
  #define KEY_XO_SCREEN_OUT  0x1bd

  Is there an exhaustive list of all buttons and switches and
  events on the OLPC? Are any more planned? Which ones should
  be assigned keycodes?

  Rewrote setolpckeys.c code in Python (just uses ioctl, but needs to know 
keycodes).
	Writing utilities like that in Python instead of C makes it easier to 
	reconfigure the keys on the OLPC without a C compiler. 





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how to force recompute and get html results

[Don Hopkins]

http://www.nutritionquest.com/login/getResults.php?user_ffq_id=7556&force=1&resultType=html

The resultType=html gets the html page instead of the default laszlo xml 
page.
The force=1 forces it to recompute, to pick up changes to the analysis 
code, data or the templates.
The user_ffq_id is the id of the session.

-Don

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Re: how to force recompute and get html results

[Don Hopkins]

If getResults.php doesn't seem to be working, then it is probably 
throwing some kind of an error, possibly due to one of the ffqname.php 
files.
To find out the line number, plug the user_ffq_id into the following url 
and load it in a browser.
Or you can look in /tmp/php_error.txt, but sometimes it crashes before 
setting up the error handler.


Don Hopkins wrote:
> http://www.nutritionquest.com/login/getResults.php?user_ffq_id=7556&force=1&resultType=html
>
> The resultType=html gets the html page instead of the default laszlo xml 
> page.
> The force=1 forces it to recompute, to pick up changes to the analysis 
> code, data or the templates.
> The user_ffq_id is the id of the session.
>
> -Don
>
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Re: Power manager specification... (request for comments).

[Don Hopkins]

You have to remember that the kids using these machines might not yet 
know how to read, so just popping up a notice with a paragraph 
explaining the situation and Yes/No buttons isn't an ideal solution.


   -Don

http://xarg.net/blog/one-entry?entry_id=20005
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=506636+517178+/usr/local/www/db/text/1999/freebsd-hackers/19991003.freebsd-hackers

Word of the day: Bikeshedding

I saw this word somewhere and did not know what it meant. It turns out 
to be an excellent word for describing a lot of what goes on in online 
communities.


It comes from Parkinson's Law by C. Northcoate Parkinson. He describes 
how a planning board will approve spending millions of dollars to build 
an atomic power plant but if you go to them to get approval to build a 
bike shed they will argue endlessly. The problem being that the atomic 
power plant is so large, complex, and difficult to understand that no 
one can really argue about how exactly it is done. On the other hand, 
everyone knows what goes into a building a bike shed and so everyone 
feels qualified to argue about the details.


For some reason, technical discussions seem to be particularly 
susceptible to bikeshedding. There was a great post by Poul-Henning Kamp 
on the freebsd-hackers list:

http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=506636+517178+/usr/local/www/db/text/1999/freebsd-hackers/19991003.freebsd-hackers
which describes a particularly virulent attack they had on their list 
and submits a plea to avoid it in the future. I think just writing the 
code is a good antidote to engaging in the arguments in the first place. 
If the functionality is straightforward and easy to implement then just 
do it rather than argue about it. Most of the people spending their time 
arguing probably have enough inertia that they are not going to write 
any code and consequently, if you do have the initiative, the code 
itself is the most suitable response. As Poul-Henning Kamp said:


   I wish we could reduce the amount of noise in our lists and I wish 
we could let people build a bike shed every so often, and I don't really 
care what colour they paint it.


Who knows, if you write enough code we might even end up with an atomic 
power plant (or for you greens in the audience, a lovely old growth forest).


http://www.bikeshed.com/
Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is?

"The really, really short answer is that you should not. The somewhat 
longer answer is that just because you are capable of building a 
bikeshed does not mean you should stop others from building one just 
because you do not like the color they plan to paint it. This is a 
metaphor indicating that you need not argue about every little feature 
just because you know enough to do so. Some people have commented that 
the amount of noise generated by a change is inversely proportional to 
the complexity of the change."



Guylhem Aznar wrote:

Hello,

On 8/17/07, Walter Bender <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
  

Lets please be careful not to over-engineer. While Mike makes good
points, we have this wonderful human social network we can depend upon
as well. E.g., If I am downloading something from your machine, I can
ask you to hold on a second until I finish. Let's take advantage of
the fact that the kids are in the same community/school most of the
time and not worry so much about corner cases until we have some more
breathing room.



Yet thinking before implementing can easily overcome future problems.
I believethe idea of "inibitors" for the various power schemes should
not be overlooked since their benefits can be important.

In your example, a download activity could make the suspend wait an
additional minute or two, explaining the user than its request was
noticed, won't happen until the download/upload is over, unless it is
overriden.

If people are in the same class, of course, but what if the person is
several hops away on the mesh network?

Moreover, this interesting idea could also be applied to video
playback/screen rotation requests, explaining that the screen can't be
rotated or the playback will stop, etc.

There's a great potential in such examples to go beyond the
traditionnal power management done in GNU/linux.

But anyway, if you think these cases are so special and supporting
them will take too much time, write a quick shell script to test the
concepts, play with it, and see if it helps you or if it's just a
waste of cpu cycles.

PS I have some more suggestions (ex: a maximal suspend mode to carry
the machine without using it)  but on a computer I don't have here - I
will post a message a little bit later.


Guylhem
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Re: The "iGoogle bug"

[Don Hopkins]

> This is #3352: https://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3352
>
> What's special about this page is that the clock applet uses two
> very wide bitmaps of 3200 pixels each to represent the clock arms in all
> possible positions.  (that's over 2MB of RAM wasted, nice!)
>   

Wow, 2MB of ram for a clock? That's 32 Commodore 64's: even worse than 
Sun's Open Look clock tool! Kids these days...

 From the "X-Windows Disaster":
http://www.art.net/~hopkins/Don/unix-haters/x-windows/disaster.html

"X has had its share of $5,000 toilet seats -- like Sun's Open Look 
clock tool, which gobbles up 1.4 megabytes of real memory! If you 
sacrificed all the RAM from 22 Commodore 64s to clock tool, it still 
wouldn't have enough to tell you the time. Even the vanilla X11R4 
"xclock" utility consumed 656K to run. And X's memory usage is increasing."

-Don

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OLPC SimCity

[Don Hopkins]

EA has just announced OLPC SimCity!
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071110-original-sim-city-donated-to-one-laptop-per-child-project.html
 


I recorded a demo and put it up on YouTube, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpKhh10K-j0

  -Don
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Posted a bunch of OLPC SimCity stuff to my blog

[Don Hopkins]

I've just posted a bunch of stuff about OLPC SimCity, including some 
exciting discussion with Alan Kay about eToys, Robot Odyssey, Visual 
Programming, and teaching kids to program, to my blog:

http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal

Enjoy!

PS: If you want to sign up to my blog to comment on the postings, please 
create a new account in drupal then email me a note at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] to remind me to activate it, because many comment 
spammers apply for accounts, who I ignore if they don't say something 
that makes me believe they're not spammers.

-Don

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OLPC XEyes

[Don Hopkins]

Mike C. Fletcher wrote:
> I think he was using it as an example of a "dirt simple X application",
> rather than as a *particularly* needed application.  Taking the icon and
> title from the X icon and title has (I think) already been added (would
> have to ask about that), but the installation and specification of the
> activity so that it shows up in the launch bar doesn't AFAIK work yet.
>   

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, somebody sugarize XEyes!
It's the cutest X application that runs on the OLPC without any 
modification.
We just need a way to launch it from the frame!

http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/gallery2/v/Devon/IMG_0135.JPG.html

Now you can see why my OLPC has tooth marks in the handle:

http://www.donhopkins.com/drupal/gallery2/v/Devon/IMG_0144.JPG.html

-Don

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Re: Patent infringement lawsuit against OLPC in Nigeria

[Don Hopkins]

I wrote KING OYEGBOLA and he called me back immediately.
He says he is running a program called "Bribe One, Get One".
For the price of bribing two government officials, I can have one United 
States government official in my own pocket, and a government official 
in an impoverished developing country will be bribed as well.

Plus, it is totally tax deductible!
I have sent him a forklift full of money, which I'm shipping with a 
specially designed Haliburton Money Forklift, surplus from Iraq.
I'll let you know when I receive the private phone numbers and 
embarrassing incriminating pictures of the government officials I'm 
sponsoring.


   -Don


Andi wrote:

nick knouf schrieb:
  
I don't know Nigerian reverse-engineering laws so I don't know if the  
case has any merit, but is there any word about how this will affect  
the XO in Nigeria?



DEAR MR. KNOUF,

MY NAME IS KING OYEGBOLA. I COME FROM NIGERIA AND INVENTED THE THIRD
AND FOURTH SHIFT KEY FOR COMPUTER KEYBOARDS.
THOSE LET THE PEOPLE OF MY COUNTRY TYPE IN THE LETTERS OF THEIR DIALECTS.
NOW THE REBELS AROUND LEADER NEGROPONTE STOLE MY IDEAS AND TRY TO
ACHIEVE WORLD DOMINANCE USING MY INVENTION.
THEREFORE I ASK FOR YOUR HELP IN FIGHTING THE REBELS AND HELP ME AND
MY FAMILY OUT OF THIS MESS.
TO FINANCE OUT LAWYERS WE HAVE TO TRANSFER 100.000.000$ TO THE U.S.

YOU SEEM TO BE THE PERFECT PERSON FOR THIS TASK.
20% OF THE SUM ARE YOURS, IF YOU ARE WILLING TO HELP.
WRITE A MAIL TO: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

NIGERIA WILL THANK YOU!

REGARDS,
KING OYEGBOLA
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Re: Patent infringement lawsuit against OLPC in Nigeria

[Don Hopkins]

Jeff Keller wrote:

On 11/27/07, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
  

I imagine that if the XO is in violation, a lot of other products
(hardware and software) are also in violation.  Shift keys are modifiers,
yes - they help you make Big Letters.  The case sounds fairly ridiculous;
folks've had some form of AltGr, or Meta, or Mode key since... vt100
terminals?  A blasted long time.



I haven't looked followed the links (the whole thing sounds frivolous
to me, and not about technology), but for prior art one could do worse
than the Space Cadet keyboard, used with Lisp Machines at least as
early as 1980:
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-cadet_keyboard
  


Here's some prior art from 1978:

Double Bucky (Sung to the tune of "Rubber Duckie")

Double bucky, you're the one!
You make my keyboard lots of fun
Double bucky, an additional bit or two: (Vo-vo-de-o!)
Control and Meta side by side,
Augmented ASCII, nine bits wide!
Double bucky, a half a thousand glyphs, plus a few!
Double bucky, left and right OR'd together, outta sight!
Double bucky,
I'd like a whole word of Double bucky,
I'm happy I heard of Double bucky,
I'd like a whole word of you!

-- (C) 1978 by Guy L. Steele, Jr.

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Re: Observing games

[Don Hopkins]

I want the multi player version of Micropolis (SimCity) [the new one 
based on Python that we're developing, not the old X11/TCL/Tk multi 
player version] to support different roles, including observing and 
chatting.
Some roles (like observing and commenting, or wrecking destruction by 
playing the monster or tornado) would be simpler and easy for young kids 
to play, and others would be more advanced and require more skill and 
trust and communication with other players.
Each player who joins the activity could be shown on the map as an 
animated sprite (color coded of their XO user colors) which depicts 
their role, that they can move around on the map.
For example, to just observe and comment on a game, you could fly the 
helicopter around, and speak to other nearby players through the "PA 
system", but not edit the map or change the tax rate.
Different roles come with their own abilities and simple focused user 
interfaces (playable with the game controller buttons), like editing the 
map with various tools.
Roles could be dealt out to different players like pokemon or magic the 
gathering cards, and players could switch between the roles they've been 
dealt, instead of everyone playing in "god mode" with all actions 
available at all time.
Players, possibly including observers, could vote on various issues, 
like building zones, changing the tax rate, electing other players into 
offices or jobs, like treasurer in charge of finance, demolition 
bulldozing, building roads, zoning land, etc.
Players should be able to publish remarks (time stamped and geocoded) 
and articles with screen snapshots (and graphs and charts and map 
overlays) in the city newspaper, a blog-like journal that's saved with 
the game.
You should be able to view all geocoded articles as icons on the map 
like "point of interest" markers, and also on a timeline with a calendar 
like a blog.
The Micropolis journal would be something like the stories in The Sims 
"Family Albums" that you can upload to The Sims Exchange along with the 
game save file, to share with other players.
But it would be more geographically oriented, and more like a regional 
newspaper than a family album.

-Don


Edward Cherlin wrote:
> While talking with Josh Waitzkin about the chess software he would
> like to donate, I realized that it would be very helpful if there were
> a way to share games on XOs not just with players, but with observers,
> including kibitzers who want to comment on a game in progress, or have
> a discussion with the other observers. This function is provided on
> most game servers, with the players unable to tap into the discussion
> channel. Chess TV in Russia especially, and weiqi/go/baduk TV and
> xiangqi/janggi/shogi TV in China/Korea/Japan also have expert
> commentators discussing games in progress, and there is a market in
> DVDs of commented games.
>
> What would we have to do to the XO collaboration model to make that happen?
>
> If we can do that, what would it take to extend it to games with
> multiple players or even teams online? Chaturanga, the earliest form
> of chess, was a four-way battle. Many combat card games permit fairly
> large matches, although I haven't seen any larger than eight players.
> World of Warcraft has team voice communications that the other team
> doesn't get to hear.
>
>
>
>   

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Re: [Server-devel] Google Summer of Code and OLPC

[Don Hopkins]

Thanks for creating the wiki page!
I just added this to the Summer of Code 2008 Ideas page:
http://wiki.laptop.org/index.php?title=Summer_of_Code/2008


 Micropolis

I have a long list of interesting ways to develop Micropolis 
<http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Micropolis>, which I have written about on my 
blog <http://www.DonHopkins.com>!


The source code is on Google Code <http://code.google.com/p/micropolis>, 
and I've been working on finishing up all the grunt work that requires 
familiarity with the code and would be hard for other people to do, to 
enable other people to work on the higher level stuff that depends on that.


There are two Micropolis projects:

   * The old "micropolis-activity" which is the original TCL/Tk version
 of SimCity for Unix, which I ported to Linux and adapted to the OLPC.

   * The new "MicropolisCore" C++/SWIG/Python module that I've cleaned
 up and I have started developing a user interface.

It would be best to put effort into developing the new MicropolisCore 
code for the long term, although there are some small tasks that could 
be done with the old TCL/Tk code for the short term.


-Don Hopkins <http://wiki.laptop.org/go/User:Dhopkins>


Sayamindu Dasgupta wrote:

Ok - here's the idea page - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Summer_of_Code/2008/Ideas

Thanks,
Sayamindu

  


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