Well, I have no AAA trip tips to give you, but I will weigh in on the book idea.
What you're talking about doing ties in with the Internet more than you know. From what I have read in recent press, the original idealists behind the Internet had no idea that (1) their dream would take flight and (2) that their dream would turn out to be a large commercial network selling sex, books, and sporting goods.
Most any technology comes to a sad use that the inventor never imagined. Oppenheimer regreted his research into the atomic bomb to his dying day... he thought the thing would end all wars.
The motivating facror for this book isn't the sad application that the tech is used for, but what the ramifications are for those that created it and those that use it in an "improper fashion".
When you mentioned Disney, I can see him rising from his Amana freezer and going Jackie Chan on Orlando (except he would be better dubbed). Kind of like the "ghost in the machine" in the &^%$ed up movie version of Johnny Nmeonic (sp?).
So I can see a short story where the creator of the technology rights a few wrongs (think Harlan Ellison's short story when Mother Nature goes haywire and swallows Los Angeles in a fit of revenge for all the toxic waste & pollution).
Will that serve to fuel a whole book... probably not. But what about this...
Company starts using "technology x" for their commercial pursuits. This tech was developed by a visionary college professor, very idealistic and socially aware kind of guy. Commercial pursuits become very commercial, making the company a monster image of everything bad about greed & such (this is where the stereotypes come in). Company suddenly starts going down the tubes... accidents maim and kill customers, products turn out bad, computer bugs put company memos on the web page... everything goes down the elevator in a handbasket. Turns out this major piece of technology self-checks against the creator's morals and begins to undermine the company in its own special way. This isn't the same scenario that caused HAL900 to kill his crewmates... HAL has a conflict of logic similar to insanisy. This demise is clearly planned by a strict set of rules, more calculating... cleaner and more efficient.
I am on the Board Of Directors for an Atlanta non-profit group called Freebytes. The goal of Freebytes is to take older computers and re-work them for local charities. Freebytes takes a small donation for the PC to cover overhead. Typically a Pentium 100 with printer, monitor, 16 MB RAM, 400 MB Hard Drive & fill software load goes for a $100 donation.
We're still trying to work out a networked configuration. Most of our PCs go to small groups, but schools are not out of the question. I can understand the concern about web content, but supervision always works better than filtering software.
Something along the lines of Freebytes might be a good starting point for you. There may be an organization in your area that works with computer recycling. Our group was started over 5 years ago by four high school students as a small project. Now Freebytes turns out 50-100 computers a quarter, and is working with the State of Georgia to redistribute some of the 5000 computers the state is moving out of service as a result of Y2K related upgrades.
Look at the site... http://www.freebytes.org
It's not a very comprehensive web page (we're working on that), but it does have some info that may help. Feel free to e-mail me at brian@freebytes.net for extra information.
Litestep is a explorer.exe replacement for Windows 9x that looks & acts like AfterStep. It's freeware... some Windows apps (mostly installers that create desktop icons) hate it, but I've had very few issues with it. Try http://www.litestep.net for information
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Well, I have no AAA trip tips to give you, but I will weigh in on the book idea.
... he thought the thing would end all wars.
... probably not. But what about this ...
... accidents maim and kill customers, products turn out bad, computer bugs put company memos on the web page ... everything goes down the elevator in a handbasket. Turns out this major piece of technology self-checks against the creator's morals and begins to undermine the company in its own special way. This isn't the same scenario that caused HAL900 to kill his crewmates ... HAL has a conflict of logic similar to insanisy. This demise is clearly planned by a strict set of rules, more calculating ... cleaner and more efficient.
What you're talking about doing ties in with the Internet more than you know. From what I have read in recent press, the original idealists behind the Internet had no idea that (1) their dream would take flight and (2) that their dream would turn out to be a large commercial network selling sex, books, and sporting goods.
Most any technology comes to a sad use that the inventor never imagined. Oppenheimer regreted his research into the atomic bomb to his dying day
The motivating facror for this book isn't the sad application that the tech is used for, but what the ramifications are for those that created it and those that use it in an "improper fashion".
When you mentioned Disney, I can see him rising from his Amana freezer and going Jackie Chan on Orlando (except he would be better dubbed). Kind of like the "ghost in the machine" in the &^%$ed up movie version of Johnny Nmeonic (sp?).
So I can see a short story where the creator of the technology rights a few wrongs (think Harlan Ellison's short story when Mother Nature goes haywire and swallows Los Angeles in a fit of revenge for all the toxic waste & pollution).
Will that serve to fuel a whole book
Company starts using "technology x" for their commercial pursuits. This tech was developed by a visionary college professor, very idealistic and socially aware kind of guy. Commercial pursuits become very commercial, making the company a monster image of everything bad about greed & such (this is where the stereotypes come in). Company suddenly starts going down the tubes
But hey, that may have been done before.
Brian Richardson
brian@freebytes.net
I am on the Board Of Directors for an Atlanta non-profit group called Freebytes. The goal of Freebytes is to take older computers and re-work them for local charities. Freebytes takes a small donation for the PC to cover overhead. Typically a Pentium 100 with printer, monitor, 16 MB RAM, 400 MB Hard Drive & fill software load goes for a $100 donation.
... http://www.freebytes.org
We're still trying to work out a networked configuration. Most of our PCs go to small groups, but schools are not out of the question. I can understand the concern about web content, but supervision always works better than filtering software.
Something along the lines of Freebytes might be a good starting point for you. There may be an organization in your area that works with computer recycling. Our group was started over 5 years ago by four high school students as a small project. Now Freebytes turns out 50-100 computers a quarter, and is working with the State of Georgia to redistribute some of the 5000 computers the state is moving out of service as a result of Y2K related upgrades.
Look at the site
It's not a very comprehensive web page (we're working on that), but it does have some info that may help. Feel free to e-mail me at brian@freebytes.net for extra information.
Litestep is a explorer.exe replacement for Windows 9x that looks & acts like AfterStep. It's freeware ... some Windows apps (mostly installers that create desktop icons) hate it, but I've had very few issues with it.
Try http://www.litestep.net for information