I remember back when i was about 6 or 7 (circa 89/90) dad bought home an NEC 'pen' computer that ran 'Microsoft Windows For Pen 1.0' (which was basically windows 3.11 but designed for the touch screen)... It was about the 2cm thick and the size of an A4 hardback book.
IBM have also been making them for years but they're much bigger and chunkier and heavier... and a *lot* more expensive. When i was doing work experience at their laptop centre here in melbourne one of the ones they sold to telstra (our biggest telco) came back covered in mud (one of their field techs had dropped it in the mud) and they were gonna have to replace just about every part of it (and charge telstra $20k to do so)
Banned in all the hospitals i've been in here in Australia for some time. Mind you, we're way ahead with that sort of thing.. had GSM for well over about 13 years now. They're not strict about the appliances on airplanes so much here.. mobile phones and radios are a no-no, but anything else is fair game. Interestingly enough tho, we've got the best safety record (even including Qantas' efforts in the last month or two) as far as airline safety is concerned. Mind you, every time i've heard/seen someone on a mobile phone in a plane, they've been talking with that all too familiar yankee accent. Coincidence? Oh, and talking on a mobile phone without a hands free kit in a car is illegal and has been for some time. When people obey laws such as that one, things actually are safer.. maybe some of you whinging yanks should try it sometime:)
Ok, what your forgetting here, is that 2600 AUSTRALIA (of which i am proudly a member) is linked to 2600 America by name only. 2600 AU is located in Sydney, Australia. Visit the 2600 Australia site at http://www.2600.org.au for more information.
Yeah, well, given the fact that you managed to knock one of your major cities off the power grid last year without help of a major computer bug, i think the world wants to watch the most prepared country, not the one first made to deal with y2k. - trust me, if there are major problems in australia, the rest of the world should panic.
Anyway, back OT, i think we'll see the minor problems at local time zones, and any major ones (if there are any) at UTC/GMT
actually i prolly should explain this more. They had manual checkout books and prices on every item, so it was just a matter of calling more people off the floor onto the checkouts. Its good to see some companies are prepared for unusual eventualities and not just worried about making money (although they did make more money by being able to stay open hehe)
Interesting. I remember last year, i was in a Big W (a store similar to Walmart here in australia) and their computer system went down. All it meant was that checkouts were slower. Maybe thats why Australia is the most prepared country in the world hehe:P
actually i've been considering one of those cordless mice as well... Do they improve the ergonomics being cordless?
I must agree with the TFT thing as well. Since getting this laptop a year ago, and turning it into my primary (windows) workstation (Thanks USB) (the laptop itself is more powerful than any other pc i have and i cant afford to upgrade yet) my eyesight has improved and i'm able to look at the screen for longer
The MS Keyboard does take a little getting used to. I know my father and anyone else who trys to use my computer complains and goes back to using the built in keyboard. It took me a little while to get used to it, but now i type faster than i did on the old kb because i'm using more fingers. I have trouble sometimes typing on the built in laptop keyboard - the keys are in the wrong place:) - thats a pain because i have to use my laptop at school.
Ok, so we all like to bag M$ etc, but they do make some pretty good hardware. I swear by my MS keyboard elite and my good old MS Mouse, and i can notice the difference after typing away on my laptops keyboard for hours when i plug the M$ keyboard in at home. They might make shitty software, but their hardware is nice. I'm pondering getting a new intellimouse explorer.. anyone know anything about the ergonomics of them?
*looks at current telstra cable prices* AU$65/month for 100mb of cable access/month
its things like that that make me wish i were living closer to the US (tho not actually in the US - i hear dem amerikan folk have guns and weird accents):)
*sigh* If richie g from telstra is reading this - do us a favor: CUT THE PRICES!
CyberPuppet
-- I'm a fully paid member of AOPAFPAOL (association of people against first posts and other lameness)
The australian law says that the internet should be censored if feasable.. well, since theres no feasable content censoring solution for *nix, i think the open source movement could have a big market in Australia.
Johnny Howard: "Why aren't you running a blocking software solution?"
Me: "its not feasable"
Johnny Howard: "Damn, i said we should remove that bit."
Or more to the point:
Johnny Howard: "there was a reason we put that litte feasability thing in there you know.. we only wanted it to LOOK like we were doing something about it to please that old fart in the Senate"
Slashdot Mirror
I remember back when i was about 6 or 7 (circa 89/90) dad bought home an NEC 'pen' computer that ran 'Microsoft Windows For Pen 1.0' (which was basically windows 3.11 but designed for the touch screen)... It was about the 2cm thick and the size of an A4 hardback book.
IBM have also been making them for years but they're much bigger and chunkier and heavier... and a *lot* more expensive. When i was doing work experience at their laptop centre here in melbourne one of the ones they sold to telstra (our biggest telco) came back covered in mud (one of their field techs had dropped it in the mud) and they were gonna have to replace just about every part of it (and charge telstra $20k to do so)
Banned in all the hospitals i've been in here in Australia for some time. Mind you, we're way ahead with that sort of thing.. had GSM for well over about 13 years now. They're not strict about the appliances on airplanes so much here.. mobile phones and radios are a no-no, but anything else is fair game. Interestingly enough tho, we've got the best safety record (even including Qantas' efforts in the last month or two) as far as airline safety is concerned. Mind you, every time i've heard/seen someone on a mobile phone in a plane, they've been talking with that all too familiar yankee accent. Coincidence? Oh, and talking on a mobile phone without a hands free kit in a car is illegal and has been for some time. When people obey laws such as that one, things actually are safer.. maybe some of you whinging yanks should try it sometime :)
Ok, what your forgetting here, is that 2600 AUSTRALIA (of which i am proudly a member) is linked to 2600 America by name only. 2600 AU is located in Sydney, Australia. Visit the 2600 Australia site at http://www.2600.org.au for more information.
Yeah, well, given the fact that you managed to knock one of your major cities off the power grid last year without help of a major computer bug, i think the world wants to watch the most prepared country, not the one first made to deal with y2k. - trust me, if there are major problems in australia, the rest of the world should panic.
Anyway, back OT, i think we'll see the minor problems at local time zones, and any major ones (if there are any) at UTC/GMT
-CP
actually i prolly should explain this more. They had manual checkout books and prices on every item, so it was just a matter of calling more people off the floor onto the checkouts. Its good to see some companies are prepared for unusual eventualities and not just worried about making money (although they did make more money by being able to stay open hehe)
Interesting. I remember last year, i was in a Big W (a store similar to Walmart here in australia) and their computer system went down. All it meant was that checkouts were slower. Maybe thats why Australia is the most prepared country in the world hehe :P
actually i've been considering one of those cordless mice as well... Do they improve the ergonomics being cordless?
I must agree with the TFT thing as well. Since getting this laptop a year ago, and turning it into my primary (windows) workstation (Thanks USB)
(the laptop itself is more powerful than any other pc i have and i cant afford to upgrade yet) my eyesight has improved and i'm able to look at the screen for longer
The MS Keyboard does take a little getting used to. I know my father and anyone else who trys to use my computer complains and goes back to using the built in keyboard. It took me a little while to get used to it, but now i type faster than i did on the old kb because i'm using more fingers. I have trouble sometimes typing on the built in laptop keyboard - the keys are in the wrong place :) - thats a pain because i have to use my laptop at school.
-cp
Ok, so we all like to bag M$ etc, but they do make some pretty good hardware. I swear by my MS keyboard elite and my good old MS Mouse, and i can notice the difference after typing away on my laptops keyboard for hours when i plug the M$ keyboard in at home. They might make shitty software, but their hardware is nice. I'm pondering getting a new intellimouse explorer.. anyone know anything about the ergonomics of them?
- CP
kinda like how it is here in Australia..
:)
*looks at current telstra cable prices*
AU$65/month for 100mb of cable access/month
its things like that that make me wish i were living closer to the US (tho not actually in the US - i hear dem amerikan folk have guns and weird accents)
*sigh*
If richie g from telstra is reading this - do us a favor: CUT THE PRICES!
CyberPuppet
--
I'm a fully paid member of AOPAFPAOL (association of people against first posts and other lameness)
The australian law says that the internet should be censored if feasable.. well, since theres no feasable content censoring solution for *nix, i think the open source movement could have a big market in Australia.
Johnny Howard: "Why aren't you running a blocking software solution?"
Me: "its not feasable"
Johnny Howard: "Damn, i said we should remove that bit."
Or more to the point:
Johnny Howard: "there was a reason we put that litte feasability thing in there you know.. we only wanted it to LOOK like we were doing something about it to please that old fart in the Senate"
-CyberPuppet
Look on the bright side.. at least it would destroy Microsoft once and for all :)