Who does Linux have to be "ready" for to be called desktop ready? (...) The elderly who don't even know what a mouse is?
Well, why not. Indeed, a french company has developped a linux based computer aimed at those who have nether touched a computer in their life, and especially the elderly. It's called Ordissimo ("ordinateur" means "computer" in french). It's sold only as a piece of hardware running their custom distro (eliminating instal and driver problem), run a simplified version of mozilla, features basic word processing, file management and even extra unsuported feature such as skype or gaim. It is secure, features online update and the company provides paid remote support. The only obvious drawback is that you can't install additionnal software of your choice, but in our days of online Web 2.0 services covering most of the needs, why bother.
The cost is 400 (320 $) without the screen. I grabbed one for my spouse grand mother, and being a Windows user myself, I feel more secure knowing that she runs a stripped down version of linux that she can't break, and a limited set of tools aimed at doing simply and efficiently what she needs (check email, occasionnal surfing and word processing, manage digital photos).
If your read the very poorly written article, it appears that 41 % of those who missed out on the rebates just forgot to redeem them. There is no figure about how many people actually send the rebates, and no figure about how many of them did receive their payment.
Beside, the quoted article seem to be based on another article, whose link is broken...
More info about the study behing those figures can be found here.
The microwires become diminutive substitutes for the CD-ROM, given that information can be stored magnetically on them, as with CDs.
Since when information is stored magnetically on CDs ????
10 Gigabytes in 10 cm long (...) The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million divisions or cells and in each one of these a byte can be stored. In order to store the byte, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other.
Seems more like a bit on each cell, not bytes... And "10 million" is not a Giga... So we are talking about 1.25 MegaBytes in 10 cm long. Hmmm....
That's not really that far off from here. 15 Euro comes to $19.63.
SBC has a 1.5 Mbps service for $26.95.
This is only true because Dollars vs Euros exchange rate is currently absurd. If you take into account cost of living, or if you make a comparison with constant dollars, 15 euros shoud be more or less 15 $. And American being more wealthy than french, paying 15 or even 20 $ per month for an american is cheaper than for a french to pay 15 euros.
Believe me, the US is a very competitive place and prices are very very low for a lot of products (clothes, food, cars, drugs etc...). DSL is just not one of them.
Americans tend to be more fix cost centric vs. Total Cost or Value centric. They will look at dialup lines and see that they can have internet service for $10-$20 threw dialup vs. $30-$40 for Broadband
You're right. But Americans are no different from others.
In France, for instance, people are massively switching to DSL services not because they value Broadband more than their american counterparts, but because for several reasons the DSL market is terribly competitive : legacy operator France Telecom is forced by law to open its network to every broadband operators (and there are now more than a dozen of them, at least).
The competition is fierce and you can have 8 Mbps ADSL service for as low as 15 euros per month (http://www.neuftelecom.fr/). An other company (http://adsl.free.fr/) offers ADSL 2+ service (up to 15 Mbps download / 1 Mbps upload) for 30 Euros per month and that includes TV via DSL and Phone via DSL (unlimited local abd national calls). And you can even opt out from the legacy operator and you won't have to pay a fee to France Telecom to use their line (they own the last mile of copper) : the DSL company will have to pay a small fee to France Telecom to use the line, and most of the time they won't charge it back to you. So you have unlimited phone, high speed internet and Television via DSL, all for 30 euros per month, which is dirt cheap.
This have nothing to do with french infrastructure being more modern or anything : It's just the direct effect of fierce competition. I mean : even AOL offers 1 Mbps DSL service for 17 Euros per month (5 Mbps for 23 euros) !!!
It was the same a few years ago when 3 mobile companies battled over the emerging mobile market : prices went down and equipment rate sky rocketed.
From the DENG web site : "DENG is an open source Modular XML Browser, capable of rendering subsets of XForms, SVG, XHTML, XFrames, arbitrary XML(...) Currently, the footprint of the DENG Modular XML Browser is 76 KByte, allowing zero-install deployment of these W3C standards to the vast majority of today's web browsers that have the Macromedia Flash Player 6 installed."
This is a really cute application and for those of you who'd like to see Xforms in action, there's a few working examples on their demo page : http://claus.packts.net/deng/examples
According to the article : If any company has the rule-breaking courage to stand up to Hollywood's bullying, it's Apple. If we're very lucky, Apple will agree. One press conference where Steve Jobs gives the MPAA what-for would likely derail the FCC's consideration of the BPDG process - maybe forever.
Well, Steve Job is also Chairman & CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which has an exclusive Feature Film Agreement and Co-Production Agreement with Disney for at least its next three motion pictures. And Disney is a major member of the MPAA. So...
... is Exalead : http://www.exalead.com/cgi/exalead
The interface is in french, but it lets you search the web in english. The idea is to offer a choice of keywords to narrow your search whenever the request gets too much answers.
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Who does Linux have to be "ready" for to be called desktop ready? (...) The elderly who don't even know what a mouse is?
Well, why not. Indeed, a french company has developped a linux based computer aimed at those who have nether touched a computer in their life, and especially the elderly. It's called Ordissimo ("ordinateur" means "computer" in french). It's sold only as a piece of hardware running their custom distro (eliminating instal and driver problem), run a simplified version of mozilla, features basic word processing, file management and even extra unsuported feature such as skype or gaim. It is secure, features online update and the company provides paid remote support. The only obvious drawback is that you can't install additionnal software of your choice, but in our days of online Web 2.0 services covering most of the needs, why bother.
The cost is 400 (320 $) without the screen. I grabbed one for my spouse grand mother, and being a Windows user myself, I feel more secure knowing that she runs a stripped down version of linux that she can't break, and a limited set of tools aimed at doing simply and efficiently what she needs (check email, occasionnal surfing and word processing, manage digital photos).
41% of shoppers never send in their rebates.
...
If your read the very poorly written article, it appears that 41 % of those who missed out on the rebates just forgot to redeem them. There is no figure about how many people actually send the rebates, and no figure about how many of them did receive their payment.
Beside, the quoted article seem to be based on another article, whose link is broken
More info about the study behing those figures can be found here.
The microwires become diminutive substitutes for the CD-ROM, given that information can be stored magnetically on them, as with CDs.
... And "10 million" is not a Giga ... So we are talking about 1.25 MegaBytes in 10 cm long. Hmmm ....
Since when information is stored magnetically on CDs ????
10 Gigabytes in 10 cm long
(...)
The researchers calculate that a 10 cm long microwire can carry out 10 million divisions or cells and in each one of these a byte can be stored. In order to store the byte, each one of these cells is magnetised in one orientation or the other.
Seems more like a bit on each cell, not bytes
What the hell is this article ???
That's not really that far off from here. 15 Euro comes to $19.63.
SBC has a 1.5 Mbps service for $26.95.
This is only true because Dollars vs Euros exchange rate is currently absurd. If you take into account cost of living, or if you make a comparison with constant dollars, 15 euros shoud be more or less 15 $. And American being more wealthy than french, paying 15 or even 20 $ per month for an american is cheaper than for a french to pay 15 euros.
Believe me, the US is a very competitive place and prices are very very low for a lot of products (clothes, food, cars, drugs etc...). DSL is just not one of them.
Americans tend to be more fix cost centric vs. Total Cost or Value centric. They will look at dialup lines and see that they can have internet service for $10-$20 threw dialup vs. $30-$40 for Broadband
You're right. But Americans are no different from others.
In France, for instance, people are massively switching to DSL services not because they value Broadband more than their american counterparts, but because for several reasons the DSL market is terribly competitive : legacy operator France Telecom is forced by law to open its network to every broadband operators (and there are now more than a dozen of them, at least).
The competition is fierce and you can have 8 Mbps ADSL service for as low as 15 euros per month (http://www.neuftelecom.fr/). An other company (http://adsl.free.fr/) offers ADSL 2+ service (up to 15 Mbps download / 1 Mbps upload) for 30 Euros per month and that includes TV via DSL and Phone via DSL (unlimited local abd national calls). And you can even opt out from the legacy operator and you won't have to pay a fee to France Telecom to use their line (they own the last mile of copper) : the DSL company will have to pay a small fee to France Telecom to use the line, and most of the time they won't charge it back to you. So you have unlimited phone, high speed internet and Television via DSL, all for 30 euros per month, which is dirt cheap.
This have nothing to do with french infrastructure being more modern or anything : It's just the direct effect of fierce competition. I mean : even AOL offers 1 Mbps DSL service for 17 Euros per month (5 Mbps for 23 euros) !!!
It was the same a few years ago when 3 mobile companies battled over the emerging mobile market : prices went down and equipment rate sky rocketed.
From the DENG web site :
"DENG is an open source Modular XML Browser, capable of rendering subsets of XForms, SVG, XHTML, XFrames, arbitrary XML(...) Currently, the footprint of the DENG Modular XML Browser is 76 KByte, allowing zero-install deployment of these W3C standards to the vast majority of today's web browsers that have the Macromedia Flash Player 6 installed."
http://claus.packts.net/
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dengmx
This is a really cute application and for those of you who'd like to see Xforms in action, there's a few working examples on their demo page : http://claus.packts.net/deng/examples
Of course, it's open source (GPL).
According to the article : If any company has the rule-breaking courage to stand up to Hollywood's bullying, it's Apple. If we're very lucky, Apple will agree. One press conference where Steve Jobs gives the MPAA what-for would likely derail the FCC's consideration of the BPDG process - maybe forever.
...
Well, Steve Job is also Chairman & CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which has an exclusive Feature Film Agreement and Co-Production Agreement with Disney for at least its next three motion pictures. And Disney is a major member of the MPAA. So
... is Exalead : http://www.exalead.com/cgi/exalead The interface is in french, but it lets you search the web in english. The idea is to offer a choice of keywords to narrow your search whenever the request gets too much answers.