-== Fri, Mar 12 - Interview with "los scratcheros" ==
+== Fri, Mar 12 - Interview with //Los Scratcheros// ==
-|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00008.jpg | maxwidth=480 | The "Scratcheros": Nadia, Benedicto and Alberto}} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00003.jpg | maxwidth=480 | A sugar "hack" (zoom in to see the ASCII art detail) }} ||
+|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00008.jpg | maxwidth=480 | The "Scratcheros": Nadia, Benedicto and Alberto}} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/1.00011.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Albertito, our youngest volunteer, helping one of our trainers }} ||
Today I spent some time with three siblings of Caacupe who has impressed me and the educators very
much with their original creations in Scratch. Scratch is not a school subject, these kids are
* B: The "Snake" game
* N: Strategic games
* A: ...hmm...
- * Mom: They need an automatic spell checker
+ * (Mom: They need an automatic spell checker... and a **screensaver**, of course).
* **What's the most annoying problem for you with Sugar?**
* B: Can't use the "robot" function in //Ablar con Sara// (
which contains the latest release of [[http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/0.84/Notes | Sugar 0.84]]. Benedicto had been previously
testing my build 45, revealing some bugs in networking and activities.
+
+
== Mon, Mar 8 - Children like Sugar, for the wrong reasons ==
-|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Cyber Nick, Fernando's XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cyber_nick/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids asking to install Sugar 0.84 in front of Cyber Nick's lab }} ||
+|| {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00001.jpg | maxwidth=480 | CATS, Fernando's XO repair lab in Caacupe }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/cats/00029.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Kids asking to install Sugar 0.84 in front of Cyber Nick's lab }} ||
-A few days ago, Fernando the owner of the Caacupe XO support center, wrote (Google translation with some corrctions):
+The owner of **Centro de Assistencia Tecnica y Soporte (CATS)**, the XO support center of
+[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caacup%C3%A9 | Caacupé]], wrote:
{{{
On March 8 2010 14:51, Raúl Gutiérrez Segalés wrote:
+> Fernando,
+>
> How is the migration to Fedora 11 going so far? Approximate number
> of machines to date?
Raul, the truth that it's going smooth so far, the boys are very excited
about the new version, and the rumor is spreading fast.
I think so far my team updated 120 laptops, more or less.
+
+FG
}}}
-I witnessed it with my own eyes: every day, children are lining up in front of Cyber Nick's
-door early in the morning, and keep coming all day until the evening.
+(Google translation with my manual corrctions)
-All of them ask for the new version, bui in interesting ways: a little boy said:
-"Quiero poner ventanas coloradas" (I want colored windows). They're obviously referring
-to the Gnome desktop, also known as "salva pantallas" (screensaver).
+I witnessed it with my own eyes: every day, children start lining up outside of CATS' door
+early in the morning, and keep coming all day long, until the evening. All of them ask
+for the new version, bui in interesting ways: a little boy said:
-Another kid admired his freshly installed Gnome desktop and proudly declared: "Ahora tienen Windows!"
-(now I have Windows). In Spanish, therre's no ambiguity on the meaning of the word Windoews.
+ "//Quiero poner ventanas coloradas//" (I want colored windows).
+
+They're obviously referring to the Gnome desktop, also known as "//salva pantallas//" (screensaver).
+Another kid admired his freshly installed Gnome desktop and proudly declared: "//Ahora tienen Windows!//"
+(now I have Windows). In Spanish, therre's no ambiguity on the meaning of the word Windows.
Power of brand. It doesn't rmatter if it's the actual Windows, or even if it really does
-something useful. It's new, it's colored and it's what adults are using. Oh, and it also comes
-with a really cool screensaver.
+anything useful at all. It's new, it's colored and it's what adults are using. Oh, and it
+also comes with a screensaver which makes it irresistible.
-Quick! Let's add all this crap to Sugar! :-)
+So, what do we do? Quick! Let's add a cool screensaver to Sugar! :-)
Of course not, but could we do anything to appeal more to kids? By now, I think I've observed
our young users closely enough to be able to guess what they're really missing in Sugar:
-<div style="font-size: large; text-align: center">
-Configurability.
+<div style="font-size: large; color: red; text-align: center">
+more configurability.
</div>
Yeah, dozen of scientific studies showed how users almost never customize the desktops beyond
laptop than the average office clerk using Windows. They //do// cover the exterior of
their laptops with colorful stickers.
-|| {{pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/escuela_691_profesora_gudelia_cabrera/00048.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Shy girls hide behind their Barbie-fashioned laptops }} || {{pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/escuela_691_profesora_gudelia_cabrera/00050.jpg | maxwidth=480 || }}
+|| {{pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/escuela_691_profesora_gudelia_cabrera/00048.jpg | maxwidth=480 | Shy girls hide behind their Barbie-fashioned laptops }} || {{ pictures/sugar/deployment/paraguay/caacupe/scratcheros/00003.jpg | maxwidth=480 | A sugar "hack" (zoom in to see the ASCII art detail) }} ||
Believe it or not, many of these kids also set their Home View with the random icon layout
(aka "the Negroponte layout"), because it lets them drag icons around and arrange them in
-clever ways. I could take screenshot to prove it.
-
-And what was the gray color scale in our UI supposed to mean? I was explained it once, and it
-seemed to make sense, but I forgot. And, whatver the reason was, kids are unlikely to agree
-with us.
-
-Let's give them a control panel icon to customize colors as they wish, or they'll switch
-to Gnome //en masse//. I can't blame them, either. What would you have done when you were 8?
+clever ways. I could take many screenshot to prove it, but I particulatily like this one
+abusing Sugar's user name field to create a drawing on three lines. These kids do not live
+in the middle of Silicon Valley; it is very likely that they rediscovered the technique
+of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASCII_art | ASCII art]] completely on their own.
+The original idea was passed along and successively refined by several anonymous artists.
+
+Finally, what was the gray-scale palette supposed to mean in our UI? I was explained it once,
+and it seemed to make some sense, but now I forgot. And, whatver the reason was, kids are
+unlikely to agree with us.
+
+Let's give our users a control panel applet for customizing colors as they wish, or they'll
+switch to Gnome //en masse//. I can't blame them, either. What would you have done when
+you were 8?
== Tue, Mar 02 - Charla @ Facultad Politecnica ==
projects / wiki.git / blobdiff