"Mary Lou Jepsen: Where to start: Classmate is more expensive, consumes 10 times the power, has 1/3 the wifi range, and can't be used outside. Also, the Classmate doesn't use neighboring laptops to extend the reach of the internet via hopping (mesh-networking) like the XO does. So not only is the XO cheaper than the Classmate, the XO requires less infrastructre expenditure for electricity and for internet access. In Peru we can run off of solar during the day and handcrank at night for an additional $25 or so per student – this is one-time expense – the solar panel and the crank will last 10 or perhaps 20 years. Just try running electricity cables up and down the Peruvian Andes for that cost while making sure it's environmentally clean energy. The Classmate isn't as durable as the XO, and its screen is about 30% smaller, the batteries are the type that can explode and only last 1-2 years and can't be removed by the user and harm the environment. The batteries are expensive to replace: $30-40 per replacement. The XO batteries last for 5 years and cost less than $10 to replace. Finally, the XO is the greenest laptop ever made, the Classmate isn't – this matters a great deal when one proposes to put millions of them in the developing world."

The low power, green technology, new batteries, they all are starting a revolution in portable computer technology. The OLPC can run and recharge in incredibly hot environments where a regular PC, price and size don't matter, would not work, and could be dangerous for the Lithium Ion batteries.

OLPC is innovating with software as well, taking us beyond the office software that's loaded on almost every desktop. This is about leanring, and building the future of computing.

The author recommends switching to paper, which can really help to get you thinking about what you want to organize and how you want to prioritize your life.

Personally I use a hybrid system that seems to work most of the time. I use paper to get everything straight in my head. Forget pricey designer notebooks. I made my own using these instructions.

Wicd is independent of your desktop, so it doesn't depend on gnome.
Highly recommended.

It was pretty easy. I follwed the ubuntu instructions but could not install python-sqlite3 package. It does not seem to exist. A apt-cache seach sqlite found python-pysqlite2 which is actually bindings for SQLite 3. It's already installed on my system anyway.

I ran flyback, configured to backup to a network share. choose my home directory to be backed up and clicked backup.

I also scheduled to run daily.

Flyback uses rsync, so this is a pretty common backup solution for linux with a simple GUI to make it easy to setup. Easy to setup and automate is the key to desktop backups. Otherwise noone will do it.

First I installed some stuff
apt-get install mzscheme
apt-get install quack-el

Then I added this to .emacs

;; Start up Scheme

(add-to-list 'load-path "/usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/quack-el")

(setq scheme-program "mzscheme")

(global-set-key [(f5)]

		'(lambda ()

		   (interactive)

		   (require 'quack)

		   (run-scheme scheme-program)))

That link has quite a bit for scheme customization for emacs but I am not sure I will need it that much yet.

I picked mzscheme because I can apt-get install it and the .emacs I borrowed from seems to have some support for it.