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Incredible Shrinking PC
Lawrence_Bird writes "Reuters is reporting that IBM is set to announce next week a
prototype
PC called a 'metapad' 5"x3"x0.75". 128Mb Ram, 10GB, and an 800 Mhz cpu.
Understand this is a module that can be plugged into other devices,
such as a LCD screen or docking station. "
The article actually claims that the unit has a 10-gigaBIT hard drive. I wonder if that was a mistake, or an intentional marketing ploy to make it sound more impressive than it actually is.
From www.m-w.com:
Main Entry: meta-
Variant(s): or met-
Function: prefix
Etymology: New Latin & Medieval Latin, from Latin or Greek; Latin, from Greek, among, with, after, from meta among, with, after; akin to Old English mid, mith with, Old High German mit
1 a : occurring later than or in succession to : after b : situated behind or beyond c : later or more highly organized or specialized form of
2 : change : transformation
3 [metaphysics] : more comprehensive : transcending -- used with the name of a discipline to designate a new but related discipline designed to deal critically with the original one
4 a : involving substitution at or characterized by two positions in the benzene ring that are separated by one carbon atom b : derived from by loss of water
Looks like 'meta', as a prefix, can mean a great deal of abstract things. Presumably, the idea of transcendence is what they're looking for here.
...because pagers and cell phones haven't completely succeeded in making our jobs be 24/7.
The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
Actually, it's 3x5, i.e., the size of a small stack of 3x5 cards. It'll fit in a pocket, but more importantly, will fit in most organizers/office supply holders. It's a known format.
And to the person who said "imagine tryng to type on this thing?" - Well, imagine trying to type on a Pentium chip!!! Because that's what this basically is - only mugh higher level. It's the processor and storage in a modular block. Realistically, I'd love to see it become standardized and OSes support it - pop one into a "empty" laptop, and you have your data. Pop one into a "empty" desktop, and you have it there - or pop two in, and you've got twice the diskspace (or maybe just mirrored), and twice the processor power. Is your game too slow? Pop in two more.
As stupid as it is, the phrase: "Can you imagine a Beowulf cluster of these" almost makes sense. Well, not Beowulf, per se, but personal clustering on a shared bus.
HAHAHHAHA! I just realized - after 25 friggin years of moving towards PCs and peer to peer, we may be not only be going back to minis and mainframes storing data (accessable via a wireless, pervasive network), we *may* just go back to a neutral backplane - can you say "S-100 bus"? Hehehhee....
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Bah, that's a load of BS. Where are your priorties? If you want to spend more time with your kids, then do so, don't sit there and complain about being too busy.
I get paid way less than I should because I turn my pager off on weekends. I don't put in any overtime unless it's critical. Yeah, I'm not living the high life, and not going to have much when it comes to retirement funds, but the important thing to me is that I enjoy my time with my son, NOW. Once he's grown, I'll probably have to work much harder and longer to make up for lost time, but that's just money. You can't make up lost time with your kids.
I don't have a GHz computer at home, I don't drive a Benz, I don't own a big house, I can't buy the latest gadets. But I do take my son out hiking and camping on weekends. That's where my priorites are. Think about yours...
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.