I has a laptop

So I finally got around to getting myself a laptop. (Actually, that's not entirely true. I got it last weekend.) A Lenovo G530-24U, to be precise. It's a budget machine. Not the fastest CPU, not the fastest video, only 800 pixels vertical, but $500. It'll handle web browsing, Flash dabbling, and G1 development just fine.

Hmm. Laptop, Twitter account... Is this a midlife crisis?

Sugar (bah-bah-bah-bah, bah-bah)

I've been poking around with Sugar, which is the operating environment for the XO-1, a.k.a. the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) laptop, previously k.a. the $100 Laptop. I'm curious about it from a design standpoint, since it directly orbits my current job of helping design educational yet entertaining children's games. (If it's related to what I do and it seems interesting, I should look into it, right?)

I don't have an actual XO-1, but it runs a version of Linux, and its creators have made a self-contained bootable version of the OS that can be installed on a USB flash stick and plugged into most Pentium-based PCs, laptops included. So far, I've had mixed success. I got the stick made and booted from it after some finagling (I think I needed FAT formatting instead of FAT32, despite the docs saying both work), but apparently my laptop is one of those with a wireless networking card that doesn't work nicely with that particular Linux flavor. That makes it hard for me to experiment with Sugar's work collaboration, which is one of its much-touted features. Well, that, plus I don't know anyone else also running Sugar to collaborate with... The double whammy is that having no networkig also curtails the only easy way of installing other Sugar apps beyond what comes in the base distribution, and I really wanted to look at their child-friendly music-authoring suite too. I may be able to install modules off a second, auto-mounted flash stick, or just run it on shaterri's laptop instead and have more luck with his wireless card.