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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Wed Jun 28 2006 - 16:31:14 EDT
The current issue of eWeek (June 26, 2006). an information technology trade
journal, just reported on the debut of a $100 laptop. The machine, sponsored by
"One Laptop Per Child", was announced by Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the
organization. The laptop, intended to be distributed at minimum cost to
disadvantaged children all over the world, would be a boon to yachtsmen looking for
either a dedicated navigation computer or a cheap and convenient internet
surfboard. The hardware specs, as announced, are hardly exceptional. It boasts a
500MHZ CPU, 128 MB RAM and a 512 MB flash disc. This is about 5 years behind
the state of the art. Still the machine should be able to handle most
navigation programs with relative ease and/or e-mail and web browsing. Probably no
streaming movies though.
The computer requires no technological leaps. Advances in large scale chip
production will enable all computational components to be fabricated in a single
step. Flash disc memory prices have dropped dramatically because of the
interest in digital photography. Probably the most expensive component will be the
plastic case.
There are two real benefits for yachtmen. The first is very low power
consumption, only 2 watts, about 1/10 that of a conventional laptop. This is low
enough for the machine to run for 15 minutes with a couple of turns of a hand
crank. It is sort of like those "emergency" radios sold in Radio Shack and West
Marine. Second, there is a reflective screen, visible in direct sunlight. The
last laptop that offered reflective screens was the HP Omnibook 300 of 15 years
ago. No problems with flying bridge operation with these babies. I can verify
that the computer is powerful enough to run modern navigation programs. I run
MacENC and GPSy Pro on my 9 year old Mac 1400 laptop, with considerably lesser
specifications. A neighbor runs the Capt'n on an even older IBM Thinkpad.
This is not the heavily hyped Microsoft tablet laptop. In fact Microsoft has
criticized the idea of a $100 laptop as being too far behind the technological
frontier, but apparently is quietly working on a version of Windows which
will run on it.
If they can bring off the $100 price, Negroponte estimates sales of such a
machine to be more than 50 million units the first year, the bulk going to
school districts for elementary education and to lesser developed countries.
When they are available to the general public, I'll buy one for sure.
Larry Z
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