The OLPC needs to cost half as much, run twice as fast, with twice the memory. Then it will meet the expectations they made for it two years ago. I know. I own one.

As an OLPC owner I can say RH sucks too. Changed to Ubuntu and the the boot time was about 20% less. Overall feel of the OS is much more responsive.

Missing keys? WTF. People with pocket knives cut them out or something? It's a frigging rubber mat keyboard. How does it loose a key? What kind of trade show was this? A razor blade trade show?

Sugar sucks big time. My kids hate it, my wife hates it, I hate it. I spent the first year trying to get used to it. No dice. It sucks. Slow, totally non-intuitive, buggy. Nuked it and put Ubuntu on it. No problems now. It gets a few hours of use every day. The OLPC has a lot of problems: too slow by a factor of 2, too power hungry by a factor of 2, too costly by a factor of 2. Early units have bad keyboards and bad touch pads. Put sugar on it and it makes me puke.

Yah, wtf Batman. Were is the tape option? Oh, I see what's going on. My DNS is being handled by a server in an alternate dimension where tape hasn't been invented... Wrong slashdot poll.

Come on Slashdot, get your conspiracy theories going!

You cut the fiber at point A so you can install a tap down the line and nobody will know.

This isn't some terrorist plot. This is a Government plot to install data taps in California at the cross-roads of the internet. Check the building next to the manhole - I bet it has 10 floors but the elevator only shows nine floors...

[Let's see, I read slashdot and I design cable testers - this looks like a chance to pretend I'm smart]

>Does the cable need replacing?

Cables are made of wires, insulation, and connectors. Generally the wire and insulation have a very long lifetime. Even the insulation used in cheap Cat-whatever cables will probably outlast you.

The lifetime drops a lot if the cable gets flexed, rubbed, exposed to heat, UV, or moisture. Under those cases the wire and insulation can fail fairly quickly (think months to a few years).

Under normal use in a good environment the key failure point is where the wire meets the connector. Those mod-jack connectors rely on insulation displacement to make the contact. They can fail fast in bad environments (hot, wet, high vibration).

Still, it's not common for general maintenance to change the cables. It's more common to replace them as they give you trouble.

>Do CAT 5(e) cables get old?

Sure, but they tend to keep working.

I also have an XO. I use it EVERY DAY and have for the last year. There is a lot more wrong with it than most people know. Still, I like it and use it. Its major problems are: 1) Cost twice as much as promised. 2) Runs half as fast as I'd like. 3) Has half the battery life promised. 4) Uses Sugar - it's just too weird - even my kids hate it. So, I spent $25 for an 8 Gig SD card, blew away Fedora and put Ubuntu on the OLPC. It's much more usable now. OLPC needs to dump Sugar, embrace Ubuntu, and modernize the hardware to 2x the clock and 4x the battery capacity. That would give them a chance.

Just add the ability to talk to a Mythbackend and output HD at 1080p and I'll get two!