Having spent the last decade deploying a very homogeneous collection of hardware around the world, the idea makes some amount of sense as an evolutionary step.
I don't see this happening in PC-land (Windows-based or or otherwise) because of huge variations in hardware configuration.
I can definitely imagine Apple moving to cloud-booting ipads/iphones/imacs/appleTV's/whatevers.
Of course, at that point who really owns (pwns) your hardware? Hmm.
How is this going to be different from other Linux distros and associated GUI revamp projects that have sprung up promising "we're going to be better than Windows! Really!" over the years?
How about combining the two things and re-orienting CompUSA as a channel to sell and support XO laptops to kids all over and work with school districts to use them to maximum advantage?
This would mean that CompUSA would be a lot different but it's an interesting idea...
There are a ton of kids in Maine who have spent the last few years proving this assumption -- that young kids don't learn anything useful on computers -- is wrong. Their program gave Powerbooks to all middle-school students and has produced remarkable results. It was recently renewed by the state legislature and is being expanded to additional grades with state $$, which is no small feat in a state under a lot of budget pressure. See link for published studies, etc. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Maine decided to go for OLPC's for the younger-then-middle-school set.
The primary problem in Maine's one-powerbook-per-child program has has come from backwards teachers like your Calc prof who won't adapt their teaching to the new technology.
I recommend Big Brain Academy which is basically the same thing as Brain Age but is aimed for the under-10 set.
It does require some limited reading skills but the puzzles in it are not as complex as the Brain Age ones... while still being tricky enough to drive grownups nuts.
1:Find ad popup code that can't be killed easily.
2:Claim to Slashdot that you've discovered a trivial but really nasty browser exploit that nobody knows about, and provide a link to an article that says the same thing.
3:Watch your ad views rack up.
4:Profit!
Quality backup tapes can have a fair amount of value - $80 or more per tape is fairly common so if the pawn shop recignizes a tape for what it is the theif could probably make a few bucks.
I wonder if there are people at computer swap meets/hamfests with boxes of tapes that they sell for a few bucks apiece with interesting stuff on them.
There have been multiple incidents of people buying "junk" HD's secondhand, taking them home and finding interesting stuff on them.
Like Vista's BitLocker (which can do a similar thing in software), this is mainly to prevent the hard drive from being mounted on different hardware because the fact that the drive is actually encrypted is going to be transparent to the user. Any random idiot can still access the data on your laptop with one of these drives if you leave your password on a sticky note -- or use no login password at all.
If you want to proect files on your laptop from being accessed by a logged-in user, you need to use something like PGP to encrypt those specific things or define an encrypted folder/partition that requires an additional action to "unlock".
Is this the 'way of the future' for PC titles? Will games powered by specific pieces of hardware become the norm?
Hmm, I thought we had that already... What about all those game consoles with custom video chips and CPU's in them? (PS1, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube...)
IMO, this chipset (or at least its functionality) may be more likely to find a home in consoles than as add-on's for PC systems.
As others have pointed out, the number of people who would drop an extra $100 to get the last erg of performance out of their gaming system is pretty small.
Dan Brown uses basically the same plot outline for each of the three books of his that I've read. (Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress). Here it is in a nutshell:
Egghead professor-type gets sucked into something Really Important To the World (tm) with the help of a very intelligent woman who happens to be an expert in the Really Important Thing (tm) but STILL needs him to explain everything to her anyway. While they try to make it to the end of the book they are pursued by a merciless killer who wants to bump them off before they discover the Big Secret (tm). Did I forget anything?
Great. At last! 100 episodes of a farm boy fixing vaporators, shopping for power converters, and shooting at womp rats for cheap thrills.
Not to mention coming of age, juvenile capers with Biggs, awkward first dates with neighboring farm girls, run-ins with the bullying wannabe-Sith of the rival school and worrying about bad grades keeping him from getting into the Academy.
Umm, does that mean it's like an ABC after-school special? Or maybe like Dawson's Creek with more sand? Smallville with stormtroopers?
Slashdot Mirror
Having spent the last decade deploying a very homogeneous collection of hardware around the world, the idea makes some amount of sense as an evolutionary step. I don't see this happening in PC-land (Windows-based or or otherwise) because of huge variations in hardware configuration. I can definitely imagine Apple moving to cloud-booting ipads/iphones/imacs/appleTV's/whatevers. Of course, at that point who really owns (pwns) your hardware? Hmm.
"Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter" -- Yoda
How is this going to be different from other Linux distros and associated GUI revamp projects that have sprung up promising "we're going to be better than Windows! Really!" over the years?
Should Sun have done this sooner? Related story from years ago.
( http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/04/29/181235)
Was the author right? Would Sun have been worth more than $7B back then?
"To Rule the Waves: How the British Navy Shaped the Modern World" (ISBN# 0060534257)
Now if they can make something that captures energy from wiggly little kids, we're set forever.
How about combining the two things and re-orienting CompUSA as a channel to sell and support XO laptops to kids all over and work with school districts to use them to maximum advantage?
This would mean that CompUSA would be a lot different but it's an interesting idea...
There are a ton of kids in Maine who have spent the last few years proving this assumption -- that young kids don't learn anything useful on computers -- is wrong. Their program gave Powerbooks to all middle-school students and has produced remarkable results. It was recently renewed by the state legislature and is being expanded to additional grades with state $$, which is no small feat in a state under a lot of budget pressure. See link for published studies, etc. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Maine decided to go for OLPC's for the younger-then-middle-school set.
The primary problem in Maine's one-powerbook-per-child program has has come from backwards teachers like your Calc prof who won't adapt their teaching to the new technology.
Clearly you've never used a Wii. Even my 67-yo mother-in-law has used ours and was playing tennis within minutes.
Will Jeff Foxworthy be the host?
It does require some limited reading skills but the puzzles in it are not as complex as the Brain Age ones... while still being tricky enough to drive grownups nuts.
Sorry, no link but it's easy enough to find.
I'm still waiting for an OLED display that's bigger than the screen on my iPod.
How about that projector that could work from a cellphone? (Or even my laptop!)
1:Find ad popup code that can't be killed easily.
2:Claim to Slashdot that you've discovered a trivial but really nasty browser exploit that nobody knows about, and provide a link to an article that says the same thing.
3:Watch your ad views rack up.
4:Profit!
I wonder if there are people at computer swap meets/hamfests with boxes of tapes that they sell for a few bucks apiece with interesting stuff on them.
There have been multiple incidents of people buying "junk" HD's secondhand, taking them home and finding interesting stuff on them.
Wasn't that on MTV's Celebrity Deathmatch?
Hmm, why did I instantly think of cross-platform viruses/worms being early uses of this technology? Self-propagating flash-based avertising?
If you want to proect files on your laptop from being accessed by a logged-in user, you need to use something like PGP to encrypt those specific things or define an encrypted folder/partition that requires an additional action to "unlock".
Battery life: 12 seconds. :-)
Hmm, I thought we had that already... What about all those game consoles with custom video chips and CPU's in them? (PS1, PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube...)
IMO, this chipset (or at least its functionality) may be more likely to find a home in consoles than as add-on's for PC systems.
As others have pointed out, the number of people who would drop an extra $100 to get the last erg of performance out of their gaming system is pretty small.
Vampires would love it. Brew a fresh cup to get you going in the, umm, evening.
People shop for horsepower, but they buy torque.
Too bad the book sucked, though.
Dan Brown uses basically the same plot outline for each of the three books of his that I've read. (Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Digital Fortress). Here it is in a nutshell:
Egghead professor-type gets sucked into something Really Important To the World (tm) with the help of a very intelligent woman who happens to be an expert in the Really Important Thing (tm) but STILL needs him to explain everything to her anyway. While they try to make it to the end of the book they are pursued by a merciless killer who wants to bump them off before they discover the Big Secret (tm). Did I forget anything?
Let me be clear:
I will not spend one dime on a television (or other television-watching device) that has this feature.
Ever.
Not to mention coming of age, juvenile capers with Biggs, awkward first dates with neighboring farm girls, run-ins with the bullying wannabe-Sith of the rival school and worrying about bad grades keeping him from getting into the Academy.
Umm, does that mean it's like an ABC after-school special? Or maybe like Dawson's Creek with more sand? Smallville with stormtroopers?