I work on a lot of Australian government purchasing tenders. The requirement to buy local tends not to extend to productivity or general application software. The buy local requirements are usually fulfilled by investment in local business (like local help desks etc.). In many ways an open source based solution is way ahead of Microsoft or similar as it allows direct local involvement (in Australia an example would be Samba, written by an Aussie -Tridge-) which results in a lot more local benefit that a Redmond closed solution.
I don't see how "more frequent short vacations" makes up for it (and don't for a second believe you take more, or more frequent). When I was in the UK I had about 10 long weekends a year due to public (bank) holidays. I then took a further 10 or so Mondays off to travel around Europe for pleasure. I then had a full month left to take in a block over summer for a real relaxing holiday. (not to mention a weeks paid and three months unpaid paternity leave...I only took the week). It really did make a huge difference to my attitude at work. When you feel the organisation is interested in your life and welfare you care about the org and work harder. Note - I worked for a US owned ISP at the time.
Lots of Euro highways already have distance based tolls, especially France and Italy. While this system might be able to replace some toll booths, it is unlikely to allow a much improved granularity of payment (I mean, the payment can't vary in increments smaller than the number of off ramps). On the other hand, such a system would appear to have a big roll to play enforcing congestion taxes, such as now operate in London. BTW - Is London still less congested now everyone has got used to the tax?
OT: One nation (was: Re:You kicked my dog...)
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Dotcom Era Fads
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Seems Queensland judges agree theres not much good in One Nation, the two remaining leaders, including the reprehensible Pauline were just jailed for three years for electoral fraud.
It is possible to install X11 on all current Zauruses (including your SL-5500). The killer feature for me is the integral keyboard, which was not available on competitors kit until recently. Anyway, what X11 app do you want on the Zaurus?
Not so surprising really. This smells like pure PR as Telstra at least has no WiFi network and no stated intention to roll one out (although they did pilot some airport hotspots at some point IIRC).
Japan has its own successful mobile data service with imode so doesn't need to embrace this stunt for shareholders. For a lot of the telcos, the internal position is imode may be a competitive technology to WiFi.
Just because you know it isn't doesn't mean the phone company is awake (they brought us WAP remember).
There is a very active mailing list community for support on Yahoo groups and (at the moment) on Sourceforge. The device is just great. The keyboard is superb for bashing out the kind of text I do most often, an email, memo or note. I can even write a novel, bit by bit, although it is impractical for cramming an essay in a limited time. It FTPs straight to my desk, or just send a file as an email attachment for super simple file transport. The email client is good for reading short messages on the bus (like list traffic) and even supports IMAP if you want to easily keep your mail syncronised between your desk and PDA. WiFi is fun, and great for quick fact checking, or installing software with a couple of clicks. Battery life is a trade off. With low backlight it goes for a long time, but only an hour or so at full brightness. I can honestly say this device can replace a laptop for me when out and about, even though the PIM integration isn't as smooth as a Palm. It can just do so much more...
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I work on a lot of Australian government purchasing tenders. The requirement to buy local tends not to extend to productivity or general application software.
The buy local requirements are usually fulfilled by investment in local business (like local help desks etc.).
In many ways an open source based solution is way ahead of Microsoft or similar as it allows direct local involvement (in Australia an example would be Samba, written by an Aussie -Tridge-) which results in a lot more local benefit that a Redmond closed solution.
I don't see how "more frequent short vacations" makes up for it (and don't for a second believe you take more, or more frequent).
When I was in the UK I had about 10 long weekends a year due to public (bank) holidays.
I then took a further 10 or so Mondays off to travel around Europe for pleasure.
I then had a full month left to take in a block over summer for a real relaxing holiday. (not to mention a weeks paid and three months unpaid paternity leave...I only took the week).
It really did make a huge difference to my attitude at work. When you feel the organisation is interested in your life and welfare you care about the org and work harder.
Note - I worked for a US owned ISP at the time.
Lots of Euro highways already have distance based tolls, especially France and Italy.
While this system might be able to replace some toll booths, it is unlikely to allow a much improved granularity of payment (I mean, the payment can't vary in increments smaller than the number of off ramps).
On the other hand, such a system would appear to have a big roll to play enforcing congestion taxes, such as now operate in London.
BTW - Is London still less congested now everyone has got used to the tax?
Seems Queensland judges agree theres not much good in One Nation, the two remaining leaders, including the reprehensible Pauline were just jailed for three years for electoral fraud.
It is possible to install X11 on all current Zauruses (including your SL-5500).
The killer feature for me is the integral keyboard, which was not available on competitors kit until recently.
Anyway, what X11 app do you want on the Zaurus?
Not so surprising really. This smells like pure PR as Telstra at least has no WiFi network and no stated intention to roll one out (although they did pilot some airport hotspots at some point IIRC). Japan has its own successful mobile data service with imode so doesn't need to embrace this stunt for shareholders. For a lot of the telcos, the internal position is imode may be a competitive technology to WiFi. Just because you know it isn't doesn't mean the phone company is awake (they brought us WAP remember).
There is a very active mailing list community for support on Yahoo groups and (at the moment) on Sourceforge.
The device is just great. The keyboard is superb for bashing out the kind of text I do most often, an email, memo or note. I can even write a novel, bit by bit, although it is impractical for cramming an essay in a limited time. It FTPs straight to my desk, or just send a file as an email attachment for super simple file transport.
The email client is good for reading short messages on the bus (like list traffic) and even supports IMAP if you want to easily keep your mail syncronised between your desk and PDA.
WiFi is fun, and great for quick fact checking, or installing software with a couple of clicks.
Battery life is a trade off. With low backlight it goes for a long time, but only an hour or so at full brightness.
I can honestly say this device can replace a laptop for me when out and about, even though the PIM integration isn't as smooth as a Palm. It can just do so much more...