Fiji Trip Status Update (01 March 2007)

[BT Humble]

Less than 3 weeks to go!  :-O

A few people mentioned a while ago that they'd like to contribute to the project, and if the offer still stands then I've found a useful way.

The school computer lab currently consists of eight Acernote 370 laptops.  These are P133 machines which have have no hard drives, instead they're fitted with 256MB Compact Flash cards.  This actually works quite well, and means that each laptop only draws 1.5A at 12VDC.

The software load is as follows:

• DR-DOS 7.03 (free)
  
• Breadbox Ensemble / NewDeal Office trial version (free)
  
• Turbo Pascal 5.5 (free)
  
• Assorted freeware MS-DOS educational software.
  
  

I used DOS rather than Linux because (a) it has lower hardware requirements, (b) it boots up MUCH faster, and (c) I'm far more familiar with it.

Since the lab has been in place and actually getting used for a year now, I'd like to upgrade the software to the full version of Breadbox Ensemble (http://www.breadbox.com/ensemble/geocats.asp?category=Breadbox%20Office).  

I sent an e-mail to Breadbox Software to ask about academic pricing, and received this reply:



hi Ben...

Not only does Breadbox Ensemble have the industry standard UI (Windows), we've improved upon many other things since NewDeal's latest version.

We provide 50% discounts for education, however, since myself and our VP, John Howard, are both veterans, we'll do an additional 10% for an 8-station site license. That's 60% off or US$320.00 + $10 S&H (the site license includes one CD).

Hope that helps,

Frank S. Fischer, President

Breadbox Computer Company, LLC



(I think that the 10% Veteran's discount is because I sent the e-mail from my work e-mail account, i.e. Australian Department of Veterans' Affairs).

So anyway, the bottom line is this:  If you'd like to make a contribution to the project this time around, please feel free to help pay for the software licencing. ;-)

Because this is a private venture rather than a registered charity I'm afraid that I can't give you receipts for tax deductions, etc.  (That's why I don't generally ask for donations).

Thanks everyone.

BTH

[Bruce S]

BTH:

   If they ask for a vet's "C" number for the discount to apply, send me a private note and I'll put a note up on my FTP server for you. It's mine so it needed it will leave it there for only a short time.

BTW: the IBM's laptops do not like either of the programs :-) not sure why, something in the way they run the memory.

While I didn't have any problem loading the pcmcia software on the Compaq, these buggers will not even let the stuff load. To me Linux is the way to go, the distro deli-linux is a no-go, it won't even find itself no matter how I try to load it, this includes floppies :-(.

Still fighting <playing> with them though.

BTW: Vector linux flies on them, but it wants 64mb RAM just not play swap files all the time.

Cheers

Bruce

[asheets]

Hooray for DR-DOS users!  I thought I was the only one left...

I personally would have gone with FreeDOS, myself, and found an freeware office suite to go with it (used to have an archive with all this stuff but I seem to have lost it all somewhere).  But, whatever works, right?

[Bruce S]

If you know which office suite it was let us know, I've been putzing with these IBM's for BTH's next trip, which I hope to be on, and oooh are they hard to work with.

They are: IBM 380Z PII-233mhz 32mb ram. w/CD drive and 4_gig HD.

enquiring minds what to no;->

Bruce S

[Bruce S]

Oh; BTW: I if you're in the US ship you one to work with if need be, I'm going bald and white haired, working with these:--)

Compaq? no problem easy as pie.

Bruce S

[BT Humble]

Bruce, based on your coherence in that first reply I think you need to go home and get some sleep! ;-)

BTH

[BT Humble]

Hooray for DR-DOS users!  I thought I was the only one left...

I personally would have gone with FreeDOS, myself, and found an freeware office suite to go with it (used to have an archive with all this stuff but I seem to have lost it all somewhere).  But, whatever works, right?

sings "And you'll neh-varrr waaaalllllk, a-ha-loooooonnnne!" ;-)

Nah, there are still quite a few DR-DOS users and hackers around.  I made a small contribution to the FreeDOS project, back in the day (I translated the German documentation and application messages for a keyboard re-mapping TSR).

GEOS/NewDeal/Breadbox Office is very good, and well worth the $50 academic licence - you get a lot of software for the money.  It's also a very small step from Breadbox Office to Windows-based machines, which is what most of these kids are going to be using out in the world.  Have a look at the demo version, and see what you think:

http://www.breadbox.com/ensemble/geosdetails.asp?id=48

BTH

[Bruce S]

Better now , thanks.

[ghurd]

Well, that $330 doesn't look so bad spread out between over 5,000 of us.

If we want to donate $5 or $10, how would it be done?

PayPal would be handy, if they don't take too large a bite.

(even I can do PayPal!)

G-

[TomW]

G-;

Last I checked we were at over 7,700 registered users. That makes it under a nickel each.

Cheers.

TomW

[ghurd]

A Friggin' NICKLE?

How cheap are we?

See Posts below.

[ghurd]

A Friggin' NICKLE each?

A NICKLE?

How about Just $10?

Maybe $5?

How about $1?

My $/ hour here is less then watching cable TV.

"Drop In The Bucket"?

WTF?

What is it costing BTH and RichH... personally?

A few feet of wire?

Maybe a single magnet?

I personally will donate a matching contribution for every contribution made by every member of this board,

up to a total of $165 (my pledged half of US$330).

I just gave up a new Polish Radom 9x18 P64.  And I really want one. Bad.

Sorry if I was venting.  I do that on occasion.

G-

TomW or DanB or Kurt, or whoever, Please send my on-file contact info to BTH so such a T/T or other transfer can be made.

(BTH- check your bank for how a T/T can be accepted from the US, after 9/11)

[BT Humble]

A Friggin' NICKLE each?

A NICKLE?

How about Just $10?

Maybe $5?

How about $1?

My $/ hour here is less then watching cable TV.

"Drop In The Bucket"?

WTF?

What is it costing BTH and RichH... personally?



I can't speak for Rich, but this trip is a comparatively cheap one - maybe AU$900 for airfares, AU$1000 for accommodation/buses/taxis/food/spending, and ~AU$1500 for tools and stuff to take along.  The first (Sep 2005) trip was the expensive one - there was about AU$4000 worth of gear in that crate.

My wife tells me that as of today there's AU$3000 in my "tithe account", so this is really just an opportunity for youse guys to experience the warm, fuzzy, giving feeling.



A few feet of wire?

Maybe a single magnet?



Err, was that actually a rhetorical question?  Oops! :-)



I personally will donate a matching contribution for every contribution made by every member of this board,

up to a total of $165 (my pledged half of US$330).



Let's not go crazy, and I'd prefer it if we stop at US$330 (I've already paid the US$330, so you'll just be reimbursing me).  Save the rest for next year's trip. ;-)

I've just been looking at the easiest way to set this up, and it's probably via PayPal.  How's this for a plan:

1. Send me an e-mail (bt_humble@bigpond.com) stating your pledge amount;
   
2. I'll send you a PayPal invoice for that amount by e-mail;
   
3. You pay the PayPal invoice;
   
4. I splurge the US$330 on stuff from E-bay for next year's project.
   
   

(That's certainly the least effort on my part, and with 18 days until departure my preparation time is getting kind of precious to me).

Comments?

BTH

[willib]

turbo pascal is a great language to learn , i wrote my pic programmer in TP.

its structured in such a way that even i can understand , unlike C

is someone going to teach them TP?

[BT Humble]

turbo pascal is a great language to learn , i wrote my pic programmer in TP.

its structured in such a way that even i can understand , unlike C

is someone going to teach them TP?

Maybe.  I was trying to cover the basics that you generally see in a high-school computer science class:

• Keyboarding;
  
• Word processing;
  
• Spreadsheets;
  
• Databases (maybe);
  
• HTML (maybe);
  
• E-mail (maybe);
  
• Introductory programming (maybe).
  
  

You know, I probably should contact the Fiji Dept of Education and find out what's in their computer studies curriculum...

Turbo Pascal 5.5 was free from the Borland language museum, and it only takes up 1.5MB of disk space.

As for C, I've always thought of it as the language that combines all the speed and power of Assembly Language with all the flexibility and ease-of-use of ... Assembly Language.

BTH

[BT Humble]

Aha, here we go:

Evaluation of Computer Science Curriculum in Fiji (2004)

http://www.usp.ac.fj/jica/ict_research/documents/pdf_files/ict_conference_2004/maki_cs_brief.pdf

Constraints on Expanding Computer Education: The Case of the Fiji Islands (1991)

http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED353125

Some other people doing similar work:

http://tig.csail.mit.edu/twiki/bin/view/TIG/TaveuniFiji

That second one explains why the school has three old Commodore 64 microcomputers in the storage shed! ;-)

BTH

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

As for C, I've always thought of it as the language that combines all the speed and power of Assembly Language with all the flexibility and ease-of-use of ... Assembly Language.

Some of the people in the Xanadu project used to refer to it as a "K & R Compliant Assembler".  B-)

(Of course one of them used to say that C++ was indistinguishable from Smalltalk.  Which led me to reply that he was indistinguishable from a fruitcake.  B-) )