My One Laptop Per Child OLPC XO laptop arrived this morning. As the previous entry reports, I was one of the unlucky Day 1 Donors (D1Der, in OLPC lingo) who didn’t receive my OLPC XO on the promised first-come, first-serve basis, while other donors who joined the Give One Get One (G1G1) days or weeks later received their laptops before some of us D1Ders.
I’d been checking the FedEx tracking page day after day (sometimes hour after hour), and finally on the 28th the system recognized my reference number. Many donors reportedly received their laptops via FedEx Overnight before the 24th, but I guess OLPC stopped providing overnight delivery after that date, because my OLPC XO wasn’t slated to arrive until today, January 2, five days after it shipped.
As I mentioned in the below entry, I’ll be writing about “A week in a life with the OLPC XO” laptop in the next week or so, however I will share one first impression now: Many OLPC XO recipients report the device is much smaller than expected once they have it in their hands. With so many reports of Lilliputian-dimensions, I was actually surprised by how much larger the OLPC XO is than I expected. At the same time, the keyboard is going to be a challenge for speed typing – it’s definitely not designed for big-kid hands, though it will suit little hands (or paws) just fine.
Stay tuned.
When nice turns naughty
Donors give laptops to needy children, kick and scream when they don’t get theirs in return
By Joe Hutsko
Their intentions were good: Pay $400 to donate one of the so-called “$100” laptop computers to a needy child in a developing country, and in return receive one for your own child (or the child in you, if you’re an adult). The window of opportunity to “Give 1, Get 1,” (G1G1) was limited to one month, and the information on the One Laptop Per Child website (laptopgiving.org) stated orders would be fulfilled on a first come, first served basis.
But when laptops began arriving on the doorsteps of donors who participated days after the program began on November 12 but not to “D1Ders” (Day One Donors) who were first in line, tempers flared, turning what started as a nice gesture of giving into an at times nasty online “conversation” by disappointed givers who hadn’t received their half of the bargain by Christmas Eve day, as promised.
“…considering people who ordered as late as the third day are already getting theirs before those of us who woke up before the butt crack of dawn to order them because we were told they were going to be shipped first come, first served who haven’t gotten even shipping notices is a little frustrating in my opinion.”
– OLPCnews.com forum user
Located on the site OLPCnews.com, thousands of forum readers have viewed hundreds of topics ranging from what day they donated and then received their O.L.P.C. XO, to trying to crack and track the elusive ten-digit confirmation code some donors received in an order follow-up email, while others did not. Continue reading ‘When nice turns naughty: No OLPC XO laptop under some first-day donors’ Christmas trees’
Recent Comments