... from both sides now. From Gizmodo, a matched pair of articles titled "Why I Hate Netbooks" and "Why I Love Netbooks". Both posted by the same author, apparently.
As for me, I want a netbook with a Happy Hacking keyboard. One of the old, clicky ones. That, or just run my XO in terminal mode with a Model M, except it wouldn't be particularly portable. Which was kinda the whole point.
As we foreshadowed earlier, the Linux-based Nokia N810 internet tablet is now official. The little PC that's scarcely larger than the palm of your hand hooks up to the internet via Wi-Fi, and also can snag a Bluetooth connection with your cellphone. With its highly desirable slide-out keyboard, looks like some tough competition for the iPod touch.With a camera, keyboard, and GPS, all you need is a bluetooth phone and you have it all. Tempting.
It also adds GPS capability with tons of preloaded maps complete with points of interest to get you where you want to go. It has 2GB of internal storage, but when you stick a 10GB memory card in there, you can be well stocked with music, too, or view videos on its 4.13-inch 800x480 wide touchscreen.
While that's the same rez as its Nokia N800 predecessor, the N810 improves upon that with a 20% brighter screen and a 400MHz processor. Shipping in November, it's a pretty good deal at $479.
Asus has made the specifications for the upcoming Eee PC configurations available, along with pricing. The highlights include a two pound weight, and simple user interface for plenty of web apps (full list below). The best model has 8GB (SSD) with 1GB RAM; the lowlights include a 2GB (SSD) flavor with a paltry 256MB RAM, prices going from $299 to $399, which is considerably more expensive than the OLPC. Each has 3 USB ports. Jump for the complete d-low on the various permutations. Note that this is the worldwide launch; the US launch is TBDThe native OS is Linux; it's more expensive than the OLPC XO, but about the same as the buy two/keep one deal. Probably doesn't have the dual-mode screen, mesh networking, and awesome power management, though.
Spent the day at the CELF (CE Linux Forum) Embedded Linux Conference in the Techmart in Santa Clara. Nice venue -- I don't think I'd been there for an event before, in spite of working just down the street for five years. I only found out about the event yesterday, from an article in Linux Weekly News (which comes out Wednesday night), so I missed the first two days out of three. But $EMPLOYER still got their money's worth, so I'm not complaining.
One of the things I learned from my late father, who was fond of pithy one-liners, was "If you get one good idea out of a conference or trade show, it was worth it." This was worth a good deal more than that -- today turned out to be "Linux on mobile devices" day -- a whole day's worth of good, useful sessions, starting with the Gnome Foundation's announcement of their Mobile and Embedded Initiative.
It is estimated that there will be over 200M cell phones running Linux five years from now. Talk about world domination! Motorola and Nokia had a big presence at the conference.
Also good sessions on X on mobile devices, CELF's mobile phone profile working group, building small root file systems (4MB RAM and 4MB flash), OpenKODE, and a cool hallway demo of FancyPants, a mobile multimedia framework derived from Enlightenment.
Big news on the UMPC front this morning folks. Looks like Intel is shedding the Origami gorilla (read: Microsoft) as they prep a Linux-based platform to compete with Vista and XP-based UMPCs. Intel will unveil their new MID (Mobile Internet Device) platform at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing later this week. Unfortunately for their marketing department, they've already posted the slides. Unlike UMPCs which target mobile professionals, MIDs will target "consumers and prosumers" and feature a range of screen sizes from 4.5 to 6-inches with resolutions from 800 x 480 to 1024 x 600.Funny thing about that: once you lose the bloated, expensive OS, an 800MHz dual-core processor with 500MB of flash works just fine, thank you!
The initial run of OpenMokos will be small and out soon, this month in fact. They are meant to be seeded to developers and those wanting to port apps before the mass market launch in January. If you are one of those wanting to get your feet wet, contact FIC for the details.
So there is now an open GPL phone that won't say no to you. It has GPS for location and is reasonably priced. OpenMoko could be good for all the players from users to carriers, and if it takes off, it's usefulness could grow exponentially. I want one.
A LOT of business travelers are walking around with laptops that contain private corporate information that their employers really do not want outsiders to see.(from
Until recently, their biggest concern was that someone might steal the laptop. But now there’s a new worry — that the laptop will be seized or its contents scrutinized at United States customs and immigration checkpoints upon entering the United States from abroad.
Although much of the evidence for the confiscations remains anecdotal, it’s a hot topic this week among more than 1,000 corporate travel managers and travel industry officials meeting in Barcelona at a conference of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives.
[...]
“We need to be able to better inform our business travelers what the processes are if their laptops and data are seized — what happens to it, how do you get it back,” Ms. Gurley said.
She added: “The issue is what happens to the proprietary business information that might be on a laptop. Is information copied? Is it returned? We understand that the U.S. government needs to protect its borders. But we want to have transparent information so business travelers know what to do. Should they leave business proprietary information at home?”
Besides the possibility for misuse of proprietary information, travel executives are also concerned that a seized computer, and the information it holds, is unavailable to its owner for a time. One remedy some companies are considering is telling travelers coming back into the country with sensitive information to encrypt it and e-mail it to themselves, which at least protects access to the data, if not its privacy.
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finagler)We're typically not of the ilk to bust out a post on a Sun datacenter solution or yet another clustered supercomputer, but technically Sun's Project Blackbox is portable -- if you consider a shipping container portable. We wouldn't believe it if it were anyone else, but the gimmick here is Project Blackbox is a shock mounted transportable datacenter capable of accommodating up to 250 Sun Fire T1000s or x64 servers, with up to 7 terabytes of memory and as many as 1.5 petabytes of disk or 2 petabytes of tape storage -- just supply water and power, and the thing will run on its own.Old-timers may recall the ancient quip about the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes...
If you have a lot of stuff that always travels around with your laptop, this is a good way to organize it. (From Make: blog.)
My current planning for the recording rig, however, is more along these lines. Roberts uses a polycarbonate substrate; I found some PVC (I think) "corrugated" plastic at the local art supply place, after seeing it in action on a lawn sign for a friend, George S. Cole, who's running for Superior Court Judge in Santa Clara County (yes, that's a plug).
The basic idea for the recording rig is to cut a piece of the corrugated plastic board that fits into a small rolling suitcase, and attach my recording computer, the M-Audio Omni I/O (preamps, headphone amps, and breakout box), a power strip, and all the associated wall warts. I can then drop it into the suitcase along with a laptop, cables, and microphones for field recording, or pull it out and plug in the X terminal and stack of tube preamps I use in the "studio".
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