Selected TechNotes – January 2005

Low Priced PCs – Simputer and Apple
The low priced PC name that often comes to mind is the Simputer, which typically sells for between USD250 and USD500 (http://www.simputer.org/ & http://www.amidasimputer.com/). These are low priced designs that can help expand the use of computing in households, schools and even universities. These devices are seen as a low cost alternative to a PC, which more people can afford. A smart card can be added to the Simputer as a feature, enabling it to be used by multiple people, each needing to own just the smart card feature. The rest of the device can easily be shared between a number of people, making it even more affordable. The Simputer is said to represent the result of true collaboration between academics and technology specialists. The system software is registered as open source and so can easily be added to through IT student projects and interested programmers.

A new entrant on the low cost PC scene is Apple that has announced its Mac Mini, which it plans to sell for just under USD500 (http://www.apple.com/macmini/). In western markets, this would be positioned as an additional device, to be used with the PC that already exists in most households. In a developing country setting, this device could compete with the Simputer mentioned above. The device’s footprint is only a little larger than a CD, but still requires an external screen, keyboard and mouse, which a Simputer does not require. Because of its family line, it links to the famous iPod, can surf the Internet, be used to type documents, etc.

The Apple family of product standards and renowned operating stability is likely to be a big draw card in many countries. On the other hand, in countries where a really low-priced tablet-type PC is needed to carry collections of books to read and share between people, the Simputer is likely to be popular. Now wouldn’t it be an absolute winner if Apple and Simputer could get together a talk to each other? [Hint to CEO Steve Jobs!]

Disk drives face their limits as flash memory cards increase their storage capacity
The size of disk drives has been coming down for many years (they were bigger than a large briefcase about 30 years ago), and the volume of data they can store has been rocketing at the same time. Analyst Jim Porter is quoted in cnet news as saying that the limits are being reached because of the reducing diameter of the disk, which reduced the available area on which to write data. Further reduction in the size of the already tiny disks is becoming less attractive. The approximately 25mm diameter seems to be about as little as they are going to go.

Smaller than this, flash memory cards seem set to rule (tiny circuit boards with memory built in). Flash memory is the kind of memory found in the little USB memory devices. These are sometimes called “memory key chains” or “memory sticks”. On the same PC, you might be accessing data on your built-in hard drive; a hard drive plugged into your PC Card slot (the “PCMCIA) and flash memory cards.

The difficulty with many flash memory cards that don’t plug into the USB plug on the PC is that there are so many varieties. Each digital camera, cell phone and PDA seems to use a different kind. PCs cannot have slots for every kind and sometimes have just one, which may or may not suit your non-PC uses. For this, one can get PC Cards into which flash memory cards can plug. If you are wondering what these are useful for, you might want to consult some magazines on the Internet (e.g. http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,116379,00.asp). If you have a few devices and find they all use different flash memory cards, you might find you need a device that can cope with this. One example is given in the abovementioned article (http://www.esend.com/sandisk/product.asp?sku=SDDR%2D88%2DA15&mscssid=US55V3SG6QD68L5X17UDPFWD8HM4DPPA).

Some educators reluctant about using technology
The occasional school is highlighted as being on the forefront of technology by implementing the use of computers and related technologies into the curriculum and not treating it as a stand-alone course. It’s reported though, that even in a country one may expect to have by-passed many of these technological limitations, the USA, has not yet got everyone on board (http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/10588049.htm). In a country where most schools are connected to the Internet and that has amongst the highest number of PCs per household in the world, some teachers cannot yet fully participate. Students are rapidly making themselves super-technologically-literate by using cell phones in ways many adults don’t understand, play games that many adults would struggle to learn even if they tried, and use the internet as comfortably as they speak on the telephone. The integration of computing in all forms of commerce and industry is easy to see (just look at everyone from airlines to the armed forces). Why then is there still a debate ranging on in the education sector as to the usefulness of technology in education? Teachers need help to raise their literacy to a level where they can hold their own in front of their students. As long as some teachers don’t use computers in their own work, and don’t integrate technology into the normal curriculum, it’s up to students to learn the integration on their own – something they had better accomplish by the time they look for work in the world of commerce and industry where the use of technology is well advanced. Teachers may have the opportunity to avoid technology, but their students will not have that luxury in their world of work.

On the Internet nobody knows you’re a dog
This popular joke is well known (http://www.enorgis.com/Dog/blogdog.html), but still often referred to because of the multiple persona a person can adopt when working online, especially compared to their “other” character when you meet the person face-to-face. The person we are when online may only vary slightly from our regular character; but for some this can be quite a big difference. So who, you could ask, is the person we meet and talk to when online? Ina Steiner (http://www.auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y04/m02/i13/s03) asks how can we know the person we are buying from when online – or even with whom we are having a social conversation? Online sales and action sites are trying to determine and keep records of who the people really are, but even with their best of efforts, you should exercise great caution when meeting people, just as you might be when meeting a stranger in the street of a city that is foreign to you.

After all this talk about dogs and especially if you like or live with dogs, you may enjoy this one: http://www2.parc.com/csl/projects/crypto-symposium/2000/slimccurley/index17.htm

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