Ecept that "a spinning rust platter read by magnets" is the state of the art, and has been for some time. As much as flash has been touted we are all still using hard disks. Personally, Seagate HDDs with 5 year warrantee are good enough for me. 5 years is longer than any HDD has lasted me so far, but so far, none of the warranteed Seagate models has failed me (and I will be replacing them before 5 years is up).
Since OLPC is aimed at children around the world who may not even know what a "folder" is and not businesses, this "more friendly metaphores" could work well.
Considering "Folders" are a totally Windows metaphor, why should they know (or care) ?
As far as I'm concerned, they are called directories, and always will be.
From what I can see, you can't actually buy a HD-DVD writer for the pc yet, whereas blu-ray writers have been available for sometime, along with related media. Personally, I don't care about the hi-def video aspect of this technology, just the larger capacity writable media.
A Blu-ray writer that can also write to all other optical disks (apart from HD-DVD of course) is coming in cheaper than the first gen cd *players* did. Give them a year or so and they will be affordable enough to be included in all OEM pcs.
I could only get one search result for an available HD-DVD writer (stand alone device), and it turned out to be Blu-ray !
It's already been done and used. Search for polymer adhesive, non-lethal crowd control, law enforcement etc etc. There is nothing I've found that points to any directly relevant information, but it was on TV years ago, with a live demo. The Pentagon already have files on this stuff.
Mathematicians realized a century ago that their work is a discipline of arbitrary rules, and that none of their theorems have any inherent real-world truth or falsehood. Math is simply an abstract model. By choosing the right set of axioms one can create a model that maps well onto various aspects of reality, making it useful for physics, engineering and much, much more. Sometimes the common rule set doesn't map well, and even physicists and engineers use the alternative rule sets mathematicians have devised.
So, when at the age of 11, I asked my maths teachers *why* 1+1=2, I was actually being insightful (for my age). I really was interested in an answer to that, not just being difficult. It seemed quite important for me to know (at the time). I didn't get an answer BTW (apart from "it just is"), and was treated as being stupid for asking. I think that this was when I lost interest in mathematics leading me to fail the exams (first time around).
It wasn't until I started using/programming computers (at around age 23) that I started to really use some of the useful concepts like algebra through assigning variables etc. I always quite liked algebra at school.
I think that if an enlightened teacher had mentioned that in some cases 1+1=11 (binary) or 9+7=10 (hex) then maybe conventional decimal might have made more sense, and been interesting as a *subset* of mathematics rather than the be all and end all, "coz I say so".
It is actually sub-$300, better specced than an OLPC, several *gigs* of memory (512M in the OLPC) and a faster processor.
Well, actually:
a)"The Classmate PC is also now being labeled as "sub $300," From your link. (My bold)
b)"Although the final price has not yet been determined, Intel says that it will probably start selling them at about $250, and reduce the price to $200 as the volume of orders increases." (My bold) My link
c)It has 256MB RAM as standard and 1GB Flash. Intels product brief [4 page pdf warning]
It looks to me as if they are designed for completely different markets, Intels aim is to get developing nations on the "Upgrade" treadmill, whereas the OLPC project is actually trying to help out in as inexpensive and unobtrusive way as possible. Plus you need mains power for this Classmate PC, whereas the OLPC has a hand charger.
Oh, it does have a faster processor, so give yourself a consolation point.
How about the fact that they basically control the State through campaign *contributions* ?
Or that they keep themselves in that tax bracket by keeping the actual workers pay levels in the bottom tax bracket ?
If they want tax leveled out then level out the pay as the same time.
If you were say, a company director, and you were marooned on an island with 6 other equally respected company directors, how would you divide labour ? Should the company director who gets the job of collecting food get less food than the company director who makes a plan to divide the labour and thus decides who does what ? Where on the scale does the latrine digger come in ?
It reminds me of the HHGTTG where the telephone sanitisers and economic middlemen from the 'B' Ark are sitting around arguing instead of actually *doing* anything useful. Useless third indeed.
In any society, if everybody gets the same chances, there are still only limited opportunities for any specific role. Not everybody can be a computer scientist, because who would grow the food, build houses, maintain roads, dig the coal for the power ? Why reward the *lucky* ones even more by having them pay less in real terms then the people who make their comfortable lives possible ?
This is the problem in the UK at the moment, as I see it. It is the fashion for everybody to try and get to University because they can then expect a better job and better pay. Unfortunately, those types of jobs are not unlimited in availability, so you end up with factory workers and street sweepers with BSc and MSc qualifications. And I know from experience that those workers are *not* the most motivated ! All that ends up happening is massive growth in service industry, which means these industries have to try and sell their services, and we all end up in debt to pay for it. Unemployment is at least a more honest description of what is necessary to avoid this cycle. There are far too many people for all of us to have well paying work, so either we all take a pay cut, or *some* people have to do without work altogether. When they do the latter, we use the taxes gleaned from the [unnecessarily] super rich, to subsidise the system in the form of payments to the [necessarily] unemployed.
From the tone of your post, it seems you believe that the rich got that way in some kind of social vacuum, without costing society anything along the way. Even if you strike gold on your own land, and become the richest man alive, you surely can't believe you and you alone are entitled to profit from that *naturally* occurring deposit. Because if you do believe that, then capitalism is just another word for *blind luck*, no intelligence or education necessary.
Much of the time it is night, and storing that much juice in batteries is impractical.
There is sunlight shining on roughly 50% of the earth at all times.
If you can provide 100% of the worlds energy needs (2003 levels) in 70225 square miles then how much can the earth support in total ?
Well the earth has a surface area of 197000000 square miles, so you could provide a little over 2805 times the energy needs of the worlds population (2003 levels). No-one is suggesting we cover the entire planet but at a guess, maybe 3 times the total power needs could be generated at any one time, which would allow for transport losses and still give spare capacity. It wouldn't be necessary to have all the coverage in one place, or even 10 places, the coverage would be distributed to allow most efficient and reliable collection over a 24 hour period.
The only real issues with this solution would be political. Yes, you could have nuclear generation available as well, to cover emergency "blackouts", but we could immediately stop using fossil fuels for power generation. State of the art improvements over time would mitigate transportation losses, and the same would be true for the solar tech itself. I see no problems that can't be overcome with a little effort.
I see a lot of posts complaining that fauna and flora need the sunlight too. Well how does solar collection deprive them of sunlight ? Last I saw, no solar panels are placed horizontally, so they wouldn't block the light significantly. In fact, if we mounted each collection point on a tower, say 20' high, and spaced them 50 yards apart, then the shadow effect would be negligible, if not non-existent.
Imagine the Siberian plains dotted with 1 tower every few miles, ditto the Nevada desert, the Australian Nullaboor Plain and the Arabian peninsular. Combined with roof tops around the planet, I would say we are well on our way to achieving total solar power.
Transport might be an initial sticking point, not land-based, but aviation and seaborne. But both of these can be solved with a bit of thought. Seaborne traffic is mostly container or tanker based and as such has space for onboard solar arrays, combined with kites, plus there is always the nuclear option. Aviation would need the biggest overhaul, but inter-continental stuff could be shifted to a ballistic model using laser power (that's a little bit more "out there" I'll admit). But why can't we have space based lasers beaming power to collection points around the globe, even to a moving vessel at sea or in the air ?
I guess people just want everything all at once, fixed and functional before they'll even consider the possibility of change.
I'm way ahead of the game, my transistors are -30nm. I had to do some funny things with space time, but they work. Until you observe them anyways. Next up, I'm going for inm chips.
Great! This guy has Schroeder's Notebook!
So do I - The outcome depends on whether I pipe cat through more or less.
You couldn't get away with firing an automatic weapon into the crowd during a riot in L.A., but something tells me it wouldn't be a problem in Iraq. Unless you haven't noticed, it's not exactly like we're going out of our way to detail the number of Iraqis killed by Americans in the news.
Aah yes, like last week. 2 Iraqis take up position on a rooftop and start taking shots at US army bomb disposal guys as they work on a bomb. The US army guys return fire - with *tank* rounds ! Consequently 5 young girls were killed (they were in the house), the youngest less than a year old.
Talk about overkill. Don't the US army have any sharpshooters enlisted, or was it just more convenient to use the handy tank ?
- upload speed is becoming a serious headache since on most ADSL lines (at least in the UK) it tops out at ~340Kbps
Well, apart from the fact that I seem to get 448kbps up (and I'm not alone) you can always try paying a little more.
For example - these people are offering "Up to 24,576K download speed", and "Up to 1,331K upload speed" on a residential use basis for only £85.47 per quarter (£28.49 per month) I don't know the VAT status of that quote. Or they also offer this.
I never suggested moving all your desktops to Linux/OSX. But it is possible to expose students to other operating systems whilst still running Windows as the main OS. VWware for example. Even having a class where you use a bootable cd would do it.
Also, there is the question of whether you are using the computers to teach, or teaching the use of computers. With only a single OS involved, you can only really be doing the former. It's a variation of the "teach a man to fish" meme.
I guess I'm just pissed off with TV adverts offering publications that teach you "how to use your PC" when all they are doing is showing you how to accomplish certain tasks within Windows.
Yeah right, that's why I keep getting pissed off by tossers in their 15 year old BMWs with blacked out windows, 36" speakers in the back screaming up and down the road thinking they're it !
They probably pay more for insurance than I do for the entire car.
While I don't hold you responsible for the matter, I find it disturbing that the first prolonged experience to computing that the children at your school get, is through Microsoft Windows.
I seem to remember there was uproar when MacDonalds wanted to run school canteens etc, and that's not all down to "healthy eating" concerns.
Schools are not there to commercially indoctrinate future consumers.
I actually went out and *bought* a DVD yesterday !
Yeah, yeah, I know, but it was kind of an impulse thing while food shopping. Anyway, the title in question was Mission Impossible 3. Action, suspense, all the usual crap.
Well, when I got it home and opened the case, I got a surprise. There was a little note inside, thanking me for not being a pirate (yaaar !). Ok, I thought, that's fair enough, but as I bought the damn thing what was the point ? Are the pirates now sticking little notes inside cases saying "Fuck you film producers" or "Yay, stick it to the man" ? Is this a battle of mindshare, in which case it shows the studios are *really* scared ?
So, anyway, I turned the note over and found to my astonishment, that by buying this DVD I am helping to stop violent crime ! Apparently in a raid on market traders, one of the traders vehicles contained an "open bladed kitchen knife" and a "stun gun". Apparently he was later arrested. What he was arrested for they don't go on to elaborate. Quite how possession of these items constitutes violent crime I don't know either.
I guess I'm just pissed off with the FUD they're spreading. And "thousands of pounds worth of pirate film and music products" constitutes a couple of hundred DVDs/CDs at the most, given that they are probably using studio figures. Hardly worth the expensive manpower for a "major surveillance exercise".
Needless to say the film probably had anti-piracy warnings at the beginning, but strangely I didn't get to see them;-p
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Ecept that "a spinning rust platter read by magnets" is the state of the art, and has been for some time. As much as flash has been touted we are all still using hard disks. Personally, Seagate HDDs with 5 year warrantee are good enough for me. 5 years is longer than any HDD has lasted me so far, but so far, none of the warranteed Seagate models has failed me (and I will be replacing them before 5 years is up).
As far as I'm concerned, they are called directories, and always will be.
This place is so full of wankers these days, it's not even worth responding.
I pity Hans if he has you lot as a jury. (guilty or otherwise).Plus as the writer price will fall, so will the media.
Not a problem.Ooops, I made a typo. I was thinking 11 coz I was 11. You're correct of course.
A Blu-ray writer that can also write to all other optical disks (apart from HD-DVD of course) is coming in cheaper than the first gen cd *players* did. Give them a year or so and they will be affordable enough to be included in all OEM pcs.
I could only get one search result for an available HD-DVD writer (stand alone device), and it turned out to be Blu-ray !Yeah, and then ya get to slap them *again* !
It's already been done and used. Search for polymer adhesive, non-lethal crowd control, law enforcement etc etc. There is nothing I've found that points to any directly relevant information, but it was on TV years ago, with a live demo. The Pentagon already have files on this stuff.
It wasn't until I started using/programming computers (at around age 23) that I started to really use some of the useful concepts like algebra through assigning variables etc. I always quite liked algebra at school.
I think that if an enlightened teacher had mentioned that in some cases 1+1=11 (binary) or 9+7=10 (hex) then maybe conventional decimal might have made more sense, and been interesting as a *subset* of mathematics rather than the be all and end all, "coz I say so".
Yeah, and let's have a .milf too !
a)"The Classmate PC is also now being labeled as "sub $300," From your link. (My bold)
b)"Although the final price has not yet been determined, Intel says that it will probably start selling them at about $250, and reduce the price to $200 as the volume of orders increases." (My bold) My link
c)It has 256MB RAM as standard and 1GB Flash. Intels product brief [4 page pdf warning]
It looks to me as if they are designed for completely different markets, Intels aim is to get developing nations on the "Upgrade" treadmill, whereas the OLPC project is actually trying to help out in as inexpensive and unobtrusive way as possible. Plus you need mains power for this Classmate PC, whereas the OLPC has a hand charger.
Oh, it does have a faster processor, so give yourself a consolation point.
Or that they keep themselves in that tax bracket by keeping the actual workers pay levels in the bottom tax bracket ?
If they want tax leveled out then level out the pay as the same time.If you were say, a company director, and you were marooned on an island with 6 other equally respected company directors, how would you divide labour ? Should the company director who gets the job of collecting food get less food than the company director who makes a plan to divide the labour and thus decides who does what ? Where on the scale does the latrine digger come in ?
It reminds me of the HHGTTG where the telephone sanitisers and economic middlemen from the 'B' Ark are sitting around arguing instead of actually *doing* anything useful. Useless third indeed.
In any society, if everybody gets the same chances, there are still only limited opportunities for any specific role. Not everybody can be a computer scientist, because who would grow the food, build houses, maintain roads, dig the coal for the power ? Why reward the *lucky* ones even more by having them pay less in real terms then the people who make their comfortable lives possible ?
This is the problem in the UK at the moment, as I see it. It is the fashion for everybody to try and get to University because they can then expect a better job and better pay. Unfortunately, those types of jobs are not unlimited in availability, so you end up with factory workers and street sweepers with BSc and MSc qualifications. And I know from experience that those workers are *not* the most motivated ! All that ends up happening is massive growth in service industry, which means these industries have to try and sell their services, and we all end up in debt to pay for it. Unemployment is at least a more honest description of what is necessary to avoid this cycle. There are far too many people for all of us to have well paying work, so either we all take a pay cut, or *some* people have to do without work altogether. When they do the latter, we use the taxes gleaned from the [unnecessarily] super rich, to subsidise the system in the form of payments to the [necessarily] unemployed.
From the tone of your post, it seems you believe that the rich got that way in some kind of social vacuum, without costing society anything along the way. Even if you strike gold on your own land, and become the richest man alive, you surely can't believe you and you alone are entitled to profit from that *naturally* occurring deposit. Because if you do believe that, then capitalism is just another word for *blind luck*, no intelligence or education necessary.
</rant>Heh, you wait 'till Google Ep. 1 - BackRub Garage comes out, then it's really jumped the shark (laser equipped or otherwise).
If you can provide 100% of the worlds energy needs (2003 levels) in 70225 square miles then how much can the earth support in total ?
Well the earth has a surface area of 197000000 square miles, so you could provide a little over 2805 times the energy needs of the worlds population (2003 levels). No-one is suggesting we cover the entire planet but at a guess, maybe 3 times the total power needs could be generated at any one time, which would allow for transport losses and still give spare capacity. It wouldn't be necessary to have all the coverage in one place, or even 10 places, the coverage would be distributed to allow most efficient and reliable collection over a 24 hour period.
The only real issues with this solution would be political. Yes, you could have nuclear generation available as well, to cover emergency "blackouts", but we could immediately stop using fossil fuels for power generation. State of the art improvements over time would mitigate transportation losses, and the same would be true for the solar tech itself. I see no problems that can't be overcome with a little effort.
I see a lot of posts complaining that fauna and flora need the sunlight too. Well how does solar collection deprive them of sunlight ? Last I saw, no solar panels are placed horizontally, so they wouldn't block the light significantly. In fact, if we mounted each collection point on a tower, say 20' high, and spaced them 50 yards apart, then the shadow effect would be negligible, if not non-existent.
Imagine the Siberian plains dotted with 1 tower every few miles, ditto the Nevada desert, the Australian Nullaboor Plain and the Arabian peninsular. Combined with roof tops around the planet, I would say we are well on our way to achieving total solar power.
Transport might be an initial sticking point, not land-based, but aviation and seaborne. But both of these can be solved with a bit of thought. Seaborne traffic is mostly container or tanker based and as such has space for onboard solar arrays, combined with kites, plus there is always the nuclear option. Aviation would need the biggest overhaul, but inter-continental stuff could be shifted to a ballistic model using laser power (that's a little bit more "out there" I'll admit). But why can't we have space based lasers beaming power to collection points around the globe, even to a moving vessel at sea or in the air ?
I guess people just want everything all at once, fixed and functional before they'll even consider the possibility of change.
Oxymoron Alert !
Talk about overkill. Don't the US army have any sharpshooters enlisted, or was it just more convenient to use the handy tank ?
Doh !
For example - these people are offering "Up to 24,576K download speed", and "Up to 1,331K upload speed" on a residential use basis for only £85.47 per quarter (£28.49 per month) I don't know the VAT status of that quote. Or they also offer this.
(You'd pretty much have to ...)
Also, there is the question of whether you are using the computers to teach, or teaching the use of computers. With only a single OS involved, you can only really be doing the former. It's a variation of the "teach a man to fish" meme.
I guess I'm just pissed off with TV adverts offering publications that teach you "how to use your PC" when all they are doing is showing you how to accomplish certain tasks within Windows.
They probably pay more for insurance than I do for the entire car.
I seem to remember there was uproar when MacDonalds wanted to run school canteens etc, and that's not all down to "healthy eating" concerns.
Schools are not there to commercially indoctrinate future consumers.
Something to considerYeah, yeah, I know, but it was kind of an impulse thing while food shopping. Anyway, the title in question was Mission Impossible 3. Action, suspense, all the usual crap.
Well, when I got it home and opened the case, I got a surprise. There was a little note inside, thanking me for not being a pirate (yaaar !).
Ok, I thought, that's fair enough, but as I bought the damn thing what was the point ? Are the pirates now sticking little notes inside cases saying "Fuck you film producers" or "Yay, stick it to the man" ? Is this a battle of mindshare, in which case it shows the studios are *really* scared ?
So, anyway, I turned the note over and found to my astonishment, that by buying this DVD I am helping to stop violent crime ! Apparently in a raid on market traders, one of the traders vehicles contained an "open bladed kitchen knife" and a "stun gun". Apparently he was later arrested. What he was arrested for they don't go on to elaborate. Quite how possession of these items constitutes violent crime I don't know either.
I guess I'm just pissed off with the FUD they're spreading. And "thousands of pounds worth of pirate film and music products" constitutes a couple of hundred DVDs/CDs at the most, given that they are probably using studio figures. Hardly worth the expensive manpower for a "major surveillance exercise".
Needless to say the film probably had anti-piracy warnings at the beginning, but strangely I didn't get to see them