Holiday Break -- A time to spend with the family, catch up on blogging, wield a chainsaw, split firewood with a hydraulic splitter, spread mulch made from coco bean on the garden... wait a second, where the hell am I?!? I guess I shouldn't complain, but talk about "why didn't I think of that" moments. A garden that smells like chocolate is a shit-load better than the alternative.

I got an OLPC and it is awesome! It is not the fastest thing around, but it is very functional. The GUI takes a while to get use to (not that I am use to it), but I might've had an easier time if I were an 8 year old.

Which brings us to today. Being my research day, and the fortunate arrival of my little green friend last night, I was able to bring the OLPC into my secret government security lab and start messing around with it. Just me and what I believed to be the only OLPC in NYC. However, when I booted and started poking around with the wireless "neighborhood" it seemed I was wrong. Since this little guy can only transmit so far, I use my special souper-powers to determined it must be the digital media folks down the hall. Actually, quite a way down the hall. Scouting about a bit I found an open door and peered in. Seeing the distinctive green antenna, and knew I was in the right place.

Then the conversation became a bit unusual, as I asked the guy sitting in front of the machine, "Are you Pearl?"

He says, "Yea, are you Ashleigh?"

I suppose it's probably not that unusual on the Internet, but it was a first for me. Turns out Pearl is the prof's daughter's name and Ashleigh is, of course, my niece and intended recipient.

Anyway, actually they had two. One had apparently met its match in a button-mashing 4 year old. The X session, it seems, in protest just decided to ignored the keyboard and mouse. Some fiddling, a reflash, and we were back in business. The rest of the day, I guess, we spent as 8 year olds.

I say it was a big success. We broke things. We fixed things. It brought two labs together. I am even doing this post on it now... just don't tell my neighbors -- I'm using their connection.