Voltage != Power. Power is voltage times current (amps). Increased voltage is not directly connected to power usage, it all depends how much current goes with it. Current CCFL laptop display lights use voltages usually > 1000 volts without any problems with battery life or electrocution hazards.
We're talking a bendable screen here, and average personal intelligence. I'd never take a laptop anywhere it could get wet, but say I had something resembling a piece of paper--I know I'll end up treating it like one every so often. As things get less klunky, they need to also get more dummy resistant. As an over-obvious example, I wonder how many people accidentally drowned their phones before cell phones came out!... scratch that thought.. the number would be too large for me to maintain my withering dignity.
I agree with your sentiment entirely. I am a new college grad, and I grew up in Maine. I was in the education system before the one-laptop-for-everyone was developed, but I would do exactly as you describe; I would use the laptop for exactly what I should not. Even with the systems we did have in labs, for example, I found I could get around their executable-lock program by making a VB script in an excel sheet to run whatever executable on the machine I wanted.
I also agree that they would make a good reward. My GPA was horrible for my first two years of high school. There was simply no sort of motivation for me. In fact my feeling was that being a B+ student for four years would look worse to colleges than to start out in the C range, then go up to the A range (and from the responses I got, apparently that WAS the case). The only motivation I was ever externally provided for good grades was a "good job" from my parents and a sundae once a quarter at school.
I would have been thrilled to be given (loaned) a laptop, even a poor quality one, as a reward for a good job. The only technology in my high school was a typing course in 10th grade. I found it a little strange because I also had a typing course in 4th grade! We developed with Hypercard in 5th grade and Apple's basic in 7th and 8th grade. Aside from that, we would use a word processor and Mavis Beacon.
I was lucky to be raised a father who felt the need to have a computer at home, and today I am a computer engineer. I just know how much more fun I could have had...
From the article: "Those dots are then etched away in a chemical process, forming holes, which are then capped to create a vacuum."
Unless I am reading it wrong, we're not even talking about the dielectric of air here, we're talking about a vacuum! Now a vacuum is defined as a dielectric of 1 (or maybe I should say, all dielectric values are defined based off of a vacuum). I don't know what kind of an effect it actually has though--could someone tell me if an actual vacuum (or close to it) is a special case? I'd like to see a lightning bolt in outer space (if possible):).
As for decreasing the dielectric, what I do know is that means less leakage leads to less power use and therefore heat creation overall. The easiest way to take advantage to that is to simply increase the voltage and clock rate until you reach the previous power use. That scaling is certainly not linear (it's exponential I believe), so perhaps they are doing something else...
Slashdot Mirror
Here you go!
...
1. Propose a quantum computer
2. ???
3. ???
4. ???
5. ???
6. ???
7. (etc)
n. Profit!
I think we're up to 3.
Voltage != Power. Power is voltage times current (amps). Increased voltage is not directly connected to power usage, it all depends how much current goes with it. Current CCFL laptop display lights use voltages usually > 1000 volts without any problems with battery life or electrocution hazards.
We're talking a bendable screen here, and average personal intelligence. I'd never take a laptop anywhere it could get wet, but say I had something resembling a piece of paper--I know I'll end up treating it like one every so often. As things get less klunky, they need to also get more dummy resistant. As an over-obvious example, I wonder how many people accidentally drowned their phones before cell phones came out!... scratch that thought.. the number would be too large for me to maintain my withering dignity.
I agree with your sentiment entirely. I am a new college grad, and I grew up in Maine. I was in the education system before the one-laptop-for-everyone was developed, but I would do exactly as you describe; I would use the laptop for exactly what I should not. Even with the systems we did have in labs, for example, I found I could get around their executable-lock program by making a VB script in an excel sheet to run whatever executable on the machine I wanted.
I also agree that they would make a good reward. My GPA was horrible for my first two years of high school. There was simply no sort of motivation for me. In fact my feeling was that being a B+ student for four years would look worse to colleges than to start out in the C range, then go up to the A range (and from the responses I got, apparently that WAS the case). The only motivation I was ever externally provided for good grades was a "good job" from my parents and a sundae once a quarter at school.
I would have been thrilled to be given (loaned) a laptop, even a poor quality one, as a reward for a good job. The only technology in my high school was a typing course in 10th grade. I found it a little strange because I also had a typing course in 4th grade! We developed with Hypercard in 5th grade and Apple's basic in 7th and 8th grade. Aside from that, we would use a word processor and Mavis Beacon.
I was lucky to be raised a father who felt the need to have a computer at home, and today I am a computer engineer. I just know how much more fun I could have had...
From the article:
:).
"Those dots are then etched away in a chemical process, forming holes, which are then capped to create a vacuum."
Unless I am reading it wrong, we're not even talking about the dielectric of air here, we're talking about a vacuum! Now a vacuum is defined as a dielectric of 1 (or maybe I should say, all dielectric values are defined based off of a vacuum). I don't know what kind of an effect it actually has though--could someone tell me if an actual vacuum (or close to it) is a special case? I'd like to see a lightning bolt in outer space (if possible)
As for decreasing the dielectric, what I do know is that means less leakage leads to less power use and therefore heat creation overall. The easiest way to take advantage to that is to simply increase the voltage and clock rate until you reach the previous power use. That scaling is certainly not linear (it's exponential I believe), so perhaps they are doing something else...