Week 2    29 January – 04 February, 2006 


The second week was our first without Amy. 


We started to meet some of the teachers and find our way. We began to
 acclimate to a very different world than we are used to. The biggest
 adjustments were the dealing with the heat and figuring out how
 to get food.
 

We are learning that everything takes much longer than it does in the
 States.  There are three main differences that account for this:
 infrastructure, infrastructure, and infrastructure.
 

On Monday morning, John Boafo introduced us to the student body at
 the weekly assembly and prayer service.
 

In the lab, we continued installing Ubuntu.  We had some issues with
 administrating user accounts and privileges.  Previously, under Knoppix,
 students had been allowed to create their own user accounts. Early
 in the Ubuntu migration, we realized this would not work when
 a student managed to lock everyone out of a machine.  Then, as we
 attempted to create a secure system of user accounts and user groups,
 we managed to lock ourselves out of a machine.  We have been trying
 to learn more about Ubuntu system administration, but
 the slow and unreliable internet connection has made this extremely
 difficult.  Is there any Ubuntu system admin material you can send us?


We spent some time trying to put up the wireless router (Linksys
 WRT54G Ver. 2).  We were able to connect to the router wirelessly, and through
 it ping the machines in the administration block, but are unable to
 connect to the public internet. This problem is still unsolved.
 

This week we began having productive discussions with Emanuel and the
 Fab Lab assistants about the vision of the Ghana Fab Lab, and its
 usage - past, present, and future.


We started sending students the message that this is not an internet
 cafe and encouraged them to begin working on projects.
 

To generate enthusiasm and perhaps spark some new project ideas, we
 demonstrated a "Mark and Move" car to a group of students. We led the
 students to carefully observe the car and discover how it works.
 Just before coming to Ghana we found the toy car in a 7-11.
 It uses photodiodes to follow a black line the user can draw.  We brought
 a few to the lab with us.  We thought we could take one apart
 and perhaps build something similar.  The demonstration was a
 success.  The students were fascinated by the car, and within the
 hour one boy, Ebeneezer,  sent an e-mail to Sherry asking for
 a "Mark and Move" of his own. We took the opportunity to explain
 that the Fab Lab gives him the ability to build one himself.
 

On Wednesday, together with Emmanuel and four lab assistants, we took
 an inventory of the Fab Lab.  We opened the locked cabinets and took
 a look at what was inside.  In the process we re-organized
 things, consolidated similar types of items, and generally made
 tools and parts more accessible.
 

On Thursday we had a meeting with all the Fab Labbers, about 15 of
 the lab's most active users, regarding the future direction of the
 lab.  Everyone was in agreement that we want to re-invigorate people
 to take on actual projects at the Fab Lab.  We want to discourage
 aimless browsing of the internet.  This is place to learn new
 things and build cool stuff.
  

On Friday, one of the students, Prince Sr., asked for guidance in
 selecting a project.  After some discussion we had him read about the
 MIT motor contest.
   http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2002/motors-0410.html

He took the bait and started building his own motor with parts we
 had on hand.



Open Items:


-- Is there any Ubuntu system admin material you can send us?
 
-- Cannot connect wirelessly to the internet via the Linksys WRT54G.
  Any ideas?


J&M