Small Supercomputer, XPC, Notebook, and Gaming Thingy

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.

Comments

GPS tracking

[El]

"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?

Re:GPS tracking

[Wireless Joe]

"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?

I can just hear my parents:

I wonder why Joe has been hanging around the vicinity of those airport lockers for over a week now?

Re:GPS tracking

[product byproduct]

Yes, smart children will set the device down, but *geek* children will wrap the device in tin-foil and continue to play with it.

Re:GPS tracking

[El]

Uh... call forwarding to a disposable cell phone? Of course, if you call mommy back, and she checks the caller id, you're screwed. By the way, the article never says this device encorporates a cell phone, although it does support SMS messaging, which is strange -- if you've already got the transmitter and receiver for SMS, isn't adding cell capability pretty cheap?

allows parents.

[happyfrogcow]

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.

Re:allows parents.

[freeweed]

But that's precisely where the term "Big Brother" came from in the first place. Orwell wanted something that sounded warm and friendly (family, someone who looks out for your well being), but taken to the illogical extreme.

To me, the term fits today's paranoid parent perfectly.

And to all of those who will reply "they're my kids, I can do what I please with 'em" and "wait till you have kids and you realize just how hard it is to keep them out of trouble"?

These are the exact same arguments I heard growing up when beating your kids became child abuse. However will we discipline little Johnny if we can't give him a good whuppin? Well, sometimes abuse isn't just physical.

Tracking me

[Hi_2k]

I have parents. I have a love of techno gadgets. I have a real problem, however, with my parents using my techno gadget to tell where I am. Sometimes people want privacy, especialy when they're playing games.

Zodiac!

[Cpt_Kirks]

Damn, that thing looks like a Zodiac.

BTW, Fedex says they are delivering mine this evening.

Now, we do the dance of joy! Hup! Ho! Hay!

Thank god

[Lord_Dweomer]

""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."

Thank God. For a second I was a little scared. I mean, my parents need me to program their VCR to stop flashing 12. My dad thought his shift key was broken, when in reality his entire keyboard wasn't working. My guess is that the kids are going to be able to either change the "fence", disable it, make it so it doesn't notify the parents, or simply not take it with them.

Just goes to show, digital rights management isn't the only easy thing to crack, organic rights management is too.

Re:Thank god

[aliens]

Of course they could just ya know, turn the power off too.

Tracking children

[Space cowboy]

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

Parent fences

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

When I can shock the little tykes who violate the perimeter, they just might see some of my money.

almost a good design

[utexaspunk]

that laptop is pretty dang sweet sweet, with one glaring exception- the placement of the keyboard. laptop designers learned a long time ago that putting the keyboard up against the front edge is no good for using the computer on your lap. it's better to have it toward the back so that your wrists have a place to rest.

could use a bigger HD, too, for my tastes...

Re:almost a good design

[mfago]

It is not really 0.4" thick either - but a wedge. With that kind of logic a manufacturer could sharpen the "wedge" into a knife-edge at the front. I can see the new marketing slogan:

It slices, it dices, it runs XL, Word, and Halo.
The only laptop that's one atom thick!

That's marketing drivel for you. Nevertheless, other than the keyboard placement, it does look pretty nice (and thin).

Re:vaio not so thin

[mikehoskins]

"...the size of a TV..."
"...the size of a breadbox..."
"...notebook..."

I know exactly what the size of TVs, breadboxes, and notebooks are! Good thing were talking about precise, scientific dimensions here -- unlike NASA's problem with converting standard to metric.... :-)

Was that a 13" black and white or a 57" HDTV rear projection supercomputer?

GPS Tracking and Fences

[Tim C]

So, let me get this straight - I buy one of those things for myself, set up a fence at some appropriate distance from my house, and it'll automatically notify my house when I'm at a certain distance away on my way home?

So, for example, a PC at home could switch on lights/heating/whatever, or my gf would know I'm nearly home (so she can start dinner, or knows that I'll be there soon to take our daughter off her hands and/or will be able to go out soon, whatever).

Jesus H, 1000 CPUs must be hot

[unassimilatible]

1000 CPUs in a little box?

That thing could cause a China Syndrome if not cooled correctly.

These gaming systems are a godsend!

[teamhasnoi]

As a member of the Hysterical Mothers Society of America, we've found these game systems to be worthy of our highest honor - Five Golden Slaps!

Please think of the children, and purchase one immediately!

Signed,
Cindy Lou Anderson, High Screamer

More Info on IBM Machine

[obsidianpreacher]

There's more to the story than the simple Reuters blurb that the CNN/Money article above shows ... internetnews.com has got a more in-depth article about this.

Also interesting to note is that IBM says this is the same processors that will be in next-gen consoles from Nintendo and Sony that are due out next year ... but I thought that wasn't gonna happen ...?

Re:More Info on IBM Machine

[Wesley Felter]

IBM says this is the same processors that will be in next-gen consoles from Nintendo and Sony that are due out next year

This is not true. BlueGene/L uses custom processors based on the PowerPC 440.

Re:Size of a television....

[Daniel Dvorkin]

I think 1 televion ~= 0.0012 VW Beetle.

Tracking

[El_Smack]

I'm generally against this type of thing, but any parent who has been enjoying some late afternoon intercourse on the living room floor only to be surprised by their child coming home early from a friends house will see this for the godsend it truly is.

And no, that's not a hypothetical situation above.

Re:Tracking

[El_Smack]

"Maybe if you have kids that could barge in on you you shouldn't be having sex in your living room? That would be a much more sensible and much more correct way of stopping it. Not to mention the last time I had sex, I wasn't exactly about to glance at a computer screen in the middle of it."

I am willing to bet the last time you had sex, you were ALREADY looking at a computer screen.

OK, that was uncalled for, and I'm sure you are a nice guy, but the straight line was too much to resist. Hope I didn't hurt your feelings. :)

Re:Hah, Apple beat them to it.

[bsharitt]

Hi, I'd like to return this "i", and no I don't have a receipt.

It's just a cube, not an iCube.

Re:vaio not so thin

[Anonymous Coward]

Was that a 13" black and white or a 57" HDTV rear projection supercomputer?

The breadbox was a WinnaBagel 9000, with fold-out dinette and a tow-bar for your SUV.

Kid Fence

[lotho brandybuck]

SMS Message or email? Couldn't it just shock my kid into compliance w/o bothering me about it?

Re:1000 processors? Probably 400h.

[jared_hanson]

1000 processors is 3E8h.

Computers dont like C, C++, or even assembly for that matter. All they understand is 1s and 0s. Languages are created for the ease of the human programmers. It is the job of the compiler/assembler to translate them to binary.

Computers dont understand hex either, that is just convenient shorthand for programmers. Decimal is as well. Both are a simple conversion for the compiler. Incidentally, if you ever write a math library, I'd suggest you use decimal constants, as it will make it easier for someone else to modify or improve the library.

Computers, programming languages, decimal, hexidecimal are all created for humans, to make things easier. You are arguing for the reverse scenario, and don't even get that right. If you want to be a machine, talk only in binary.

Re:1000 processors? Probably 400h.

[sketerpot]

Computers don't understand 1s and 0s. They only understand voltages.

We're just arguing semantics here.