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Re: Gates Mocks $100 Linux Laptop

begin  oe_protect.scr 
Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> __/ [ B Gruff ] on Thursday 16 March 2006 13:47 \__
> 
>> On Thursday 16 March 2006 06:09 Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>> 
>>> All news from the past 10 hours.
>> 
>> I must admit, I don't go a bomb on the concept, but Bill Gates is really
>> something else, isn't he?
>> Try this:-
>> http://yahoo.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?stor ...
>> yID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060316:MTFH13556_2006-03-16_00-57-20_N1 ...
>> 5248895&symbol=MSFT.O&rpc=44
>> 
>> "The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer...." (The project
>> describes itself as "One laptop perchild") "is have it be something without
>> a disk ... and with a tiny little screen". (He had just come from
>> demonstrating a new "ultra-mobile computer" which runs Microsoft Windows on
>> a seven-inch touch screen - and which is expected to sell for $600 to $1000
>> a pop)
> 
> That  ultra-mobile computer from Microsoft needs Wi-Fi (maybe Bluetooth or
> GPS are a possibility too), so what gives?

GPRS, presumbly?  Unless you want to know where it is :-)  Bluetooth is
a better bet than wifi from a battery life viewpoint.

> 
> Someone  from  MIT (over at the SEO newsgroup) has just told me  that  the
> main power and selling point of the $100 laptop is that the units act like
> a  peer-to-peer  network, which unlike most mobile computers, is  reliable
> and  inexpensive.  That's how an Internet connection can be  obtained  and
> maintained in underdeveloped places. 

Bluetooth peering, or, if you can wait a bit, there's some work going on
on much higher frequency packet radio, over 7GHz, with some clever
modulation techniques which can manage ADSL bandwidths using tiny
amounts of power. 

> Gates is bitter, jealous and worried,
> so he pulls out a gadget that could never truly make it.

This has been the MS approach as far as I can recall - to announce
something, even when its total vapourware, in order to prevent others
gaining backing for their own developments.  I think the world is just
not convinced any more.

-- 
| Mark Kent   --   mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk  |
Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
- Voltaire

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