Guest Speaker: Joel Stanley

Today we had Joel Stanley Student from the university of Adelaide who is currently studying computer system engineering come to our class to give to speak to us.This was different to the previous guest speakers David and Rosemary as we add to ask questions to Joel instead of him just speaking.One of the things i learnt bout Joel was that he became interested in computer system engineering when he went on a camp in year 11 to Adelaide university and they where promoting computer system engineering.

I also found out that he did his interim at Massachusetts institute of technology.While there Joel did an experiment where he put xos in oven to simulate the temperate of the sun in Thailand where the xos were to be distributed .Joel stayed in America for three months. He didn’t think of it as a job because he was having fun and was satisfied that he was helping disadvantaged children.

Joel told us he is a fan of Linux because windows annoys him and because Linux is free to use and change.He then show us some pictures on the projector of the conference in Romania where gave a speech about the xo.Joel's favourite thing to do with the xo is a drop test in which you drop the xo on the ground and see if it breaks.Luckily for Joel he hasn't broke an xo yet.

In his free time Joel likes to read web comics called Xcase.Which he told us is very popular with fellow nerds like himself.Currenlty he is working on Linux version of Google chrome which is s web browser. One interesting thing that I learnt from joel was that the xo has a wireless antenna that will cushion the blow if you drop it.I enjoyed Joel coming in because I learnt many interesting things about him and the xo.

David and Rosemary Talk

Today My Kerr organized to have David and Rosemary who had just came back from a trip to
Timor Leste to be able to come and visit us and give a insight in to the XO Laptops and the work they had been doing in Timor Leste which is also known as East Timor.They come in on thursday which is a double lesson so they would have enough time to talk to us during the talk Rosemary showed the class pictures of their trip on the projector.

Timor Leste is the east side side of an island that is just above Australia the west side is a part of Indonesia.Timor Leste is a very underdeveloped and is a third world country as Rosemary explained.The main language spoken in Timor Leste is Portuguese because Timor Leste was once a Portuguese colony.But more people are starting to speak Tetun which is local dialect in Timor Leste.

Most children in Timor Leste do not even attend school because it is not compulsory and instead stay home or roam the streets.The children who attend school have have very poor resources to help them to develop an education.

Most of the buildings in Timor Leste are badly damaged because of ongoing civil conflict in the region on top of that the building's are supplied with only 6 hours of electricity each day.

During their trip Rosemary had told us some of the things that David had done during the trip to Timor Leste . He taught the adults and the children how to use XO laptops and the VoIP phones which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol .Voip is when you make calls over the internet and is cheaper alternative to the normal landline which is hardly seen in Timor Leste because it is too expensive for the people living there.


The whole reason David and Rosemary had gone to Timor was to promote the XO laptop , to make the people in Timor Leste more familiar with the XO and to show them how it could be used to help them.


I quiet enjoyed this talk and apppicate the time David and Rosemary speaking talking with us. I learnt many things from the talk and I now have a better understanding of Timor Leste and what people like David and Rosemary are doing to improve it.

Physics Activity

Today in class I was playing around with the different features of the Physics activity on the Sugar Operating System.This activity is very enjoyable because there are many things to do on there and many different tools to use.My favorite tool is the grab tool.I hope to be able to make a game using the physics activity.