Say what?!?
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| r_a_trip Nov 20, 2009 10:46 AM EDT |
A screenless, batteryless, speakerless Netbook, the so called "Screenless Laptop", is supposed to make a difference for the less financially capable to cross the digital divide? First off, a screenless, batteryless, speakerless netbook already exists, it's called a Nettop. Add a cheap wired set mouse and keyboard and its done. We don't need to mutilate a Netbook. I don't get it. Why would $150 nettops help cross the digital divide? These machines DO need a screen, one way or another. The author seems to have this Utopian idea that somehow, somewhere thousands of CRT screen will crawl out of the woodwork, will come to people who can only afford that screenless nettop and then somehow these antiquated CRT screens won't run up their electricity bill. I particularly "like" this bit: Also, great stress occurs in low-income families when students are required to share a computer when doing homework. An affordable portable computer would substantially reduce such emotional stress, and give students the ability to work in a quieter setting, such as a neighbor's apartment or house, if that is their only option for quiet study. I don't know about you, but I don't fancy having my neighbors kid over several times a week for four years long to sit in my home, using one of my monitors (remember, they only have money for a $150 nettop) and study. I am always willing to temporarily help out if someone is in a pickle, but I'm not responsible for getting other peoples kids through high school. Although there is nothing wrong with trying to come up with solutions to lessen the digital divide, I don't think chopped up, mutilated netbooks is one of them. If people weren't so hung up about Wintel, a nice, cost effective ARM-based netbook, complete with screen, battery and speakers, powered by a modern Linux distro would do the trick quite nicely. |
| hkwint Nov 20, 2009 8:23 PM EDT |
Indeed, why have a $150 netttop if it buys you an OLPC? If you want to use this solution, it could be as cheap as €18. I'm saying €18 because I actually encountered such devices in the ALDI. It were some kind of "Commodore 64", except that the whole 'computer' was embedded in the controller. You'd just have the controller, including CPU, memory etc. and connect it using Coax to any TV, and you could do some old fancy C64 gaming (of course no real C64, just a ripoff, but anyway). One could build something like this in an keyboard instead. Nonetheless, I still remember sitting 30cm in front of a black and white CRT using my C64, it wasn't all too comfortable and probably caused some stress too (given it just 'hung' from time to time, which was especially stressful after 1,5h of successfully flying in Blue Max!) |
| jdixon Nov 20, 2009 8:26 PM EDT |
> Nonetheless, I still remember sitting 30cm in front of a black and white CRT using my C64, With today's 1080p flat panel LCD TV's, I can see using the TV as your monitor making a comeback. Of course, we've never bothered upgrading, since we don't have any over the air or cable service in our area, and the satellite plans are overpriced. The old sets still work fine for watching DVD's. |
| gus3 Nov 20, 2009 8:43 PM EDT |
@hkwint: Are you thinking of Jeri Ellsworth's C64 Direct-to-TV? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C64_Direct-to-TV |
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