Better desktop?

[Rahul Sundaram]

On Tue, 2006-03-28 at 23:26 +0200, Kyrre Ness Sjobak wrote:
> tir, 28.03.2006 kl. 17.30 skrev Rahul Sundaram:
> > Hi
> > 
> > Someone forwarded me this. Looks interesting.
> > 
> > http://chabada.sk/better-desktop/
> > 
> > 
> > Rahul
> 
> Just a few questions about the article:
> 
> 1. How is "Notes" in Jpeg images stored? EXIF - so that i can open an
> image 10-15 years from now and still read the note no problem? Or some
> program-specific format?
> 
> 2.Progress of downloads etc. Something has annoyed me a long time about
> gnome and downloading - why doesn't it tell me how quick its downloading
> (ie. kb/s)? Its fine that it tells me "how much time remaining" - but i
> want to know the speed - even if it is a (triangle) Advanced...
> 
> Pause/resume in Firefox/gnome would also be just great.
> 
> Should i just file a couple of RFE's?

Ya. you should do that.


> 
> 3. Way out, i know it, but yes - usb memstick auth/homedir could be
> usefull, esp. in low-infrastructure settings. Think about it, a primary
> scool or something like that. You hand out USB keys to the pupils, which
> are preformatted with a "homedir" and a password (hell, it could even be
> encrypted!).
> 
> Then its just:
> 	a) Find a free machine. (that is configured to accept usb-auth
> 		with proper parameters)
> 	b) Plug in usb keystick
> 	c) Gdm recognizes it. Ask the user to enter password (if that is
> 		wanted/required - sometimes you migth possibly want to
> 		skip the password alltogether)
> 	d)Log in. Do what you want. Log out. Pull memstick out. Leave.
> 
> Of cource, there should be some mechanism to be able to have GDM only
> accept memsticks that are signed by the rigth authority etc. And make a
> nice gui to format and create a lot of those, intended for know-nothing
> sysadmins.
> 
> This could probably be usefull for OLPC as well. Maybe the little laptop
> migth even be able to function as such a memory unit, allowing it to be
> plugged into a "bigger" computer (possibly just an ordinary stationary
> machine with a CRT monitor etc. and some special software?)

If this is useful for OLPC, you might want to post to
https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/olpc-software. We have ongoing
active discussions about such issues.

Rahul