Guest Speaker Joel Stanley

On Wednesday 5th of August, Year 10 Control Tech class had a guest speaker come in to talk about how he was involved in with the product known as 'xo'. His name was Joel Stanley. Our teacher, strangely suggested that instead of having Joel to tell us about him and what he does, instead we had to ask questions to know more about him. Below I list some of the Questions and Answers:

Q. What do you do?
A. I am currently studying Computer System Engineering at the University of Adelaide and currently working on the XO project.

Q. Why did you chose to study computer engineering?
A. I chose computer engineering is because when I was year 10, I went to a camp which included the tour of the University which I found out that engineering interested me.

Q. What is the XO project?
A. The XO project is aiming at giving the XOs to third world countries or can be called as developing countries, so that it can help change their lives.

Q. How are you apart of the XO project?
A. I help make and develop the XOs. I also bake XOs in a pie oven which we bought off EBay at 65 degrees Celsius.

Q. Why 65 degrees?
A. This is to test that the XO will be able to survive in hot temperatures. Third world countries, their temperature can sometimes reach up to 65 degrees.

Q. How long have you been a part of this Project?
A. I worked on this project for about 10 weeks.

Q. On the map why is there a arrow pointing at America?
A. Where the arrow pointing to is the MIT. This place is where I went to gain more experiences.

Q. What does MIT stand for?
A. MIT stands for Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This is where the smart people go to. Guitar Hero a popular console game was originated at MIT.

Q. On the XO what are the two sticks on top?
A. It's the antenna of the XO for wireless connection. The first edition the sticks were hard but people decided that a flexible rubber stick is better as it won't break easily and will last longer.

Q. Below the keyboard why is there 3 pads?
A. There are 3 pads because the middle pad is for the mouse which you can use your finger to move it. The 2 pads beside it was used for sensing other objects, but this didn't work out so the XO now only uses the finger pads.

Q. Do you prefer Microsoft or Linux?
A. I prefer Linux because of its a free open software, plus Microsoft annoys me.

Q. Which part of the XO uses most power?
A. The screen uses the most power. This same goes for other laptops on the market. The 2nd thing that uses most power is the CPU.

During the talk Joel Stanley also demonstrated us how the XOs are drop proof. He also showed us some programs and how to use the XO. In my opinion, this project is really a good way to help boost up developing countries in the world.