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Small Supercomputer, XPC, Notebook, and Gaming Thingy

Posted by jamie on from the four-in-one dept.

kidgenius, SpinnerBait, and anonymous readers wrote in with four fun tales of small devices doing cool things. IBM has built a supercomputer the size of a TV, using 1000 PPC-based CPUs. Shuttle recently began shipping their AMD Athlon 64 based XPC, the size of a breadbox. Sony has a new 0.4" thick VAIO notebook (scroll down). And a European company is about to introduce the Gametrac, a handheld WinCE gaming gadget with 3D, Bluetooth, SMS, MP3 playback, MPEG4 video playback, camera, and -- interestingly -- GPS tracking. "The system allows the parents to establish 'fences,' which, when entered by the child, cause a notification to be sent to the parents in the form of either an SMS message or an email." Hmmm.

3 of 142 comments (clear)

  1. GPS tracking by El · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Alarm is sent to parents when device is carried outside of prescribed zone." Uh, won't that simply teach children to set the device down before wandering off?

    --

    "Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney

  2. allows parents. by happyfrogcow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's one thing to be pissed about a government tracking you, but if parents want to track their children, so be it. don't make it sound so big brotherly.

    however, i don't think it would be good parenting (though, really.. who am i to judge) to use tracking like this as a first, second, or even third option. a little trust goes a long way.

  3. Tracking children by Space+cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful


    How is it that adults can never seem to remember just how elusive they were themselves, as children :-)

    Here's a hint to the parents - they'll leave it at home if it gets them into trouble :-))

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!