Small box 'to end digital divide'

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Silas

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 6848
Location: Staffordshire

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:03 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

jema wrote:

But if you consider what 90% of PCs are used for, then it really aught to be possible to have a very cheap PC.

I think it's the same problem with many other consumer goods, advertising often tells people they need something and people believe it.

You're bang on the button there!

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28128
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:11 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

jema wrote:

But if you consider what 90% of PCs are used for, then it really aught to be possible to have a very cheap PC.

I think it's the same problem with many other consumer goods, advertising often tells people they need something and people believe it.

Ypu can see this factor with notebook PCs, what people NEED is a long battery life, what they get is more power draining power features.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:13 pm Post subject:

jema wrote:

what people NEED is a long battery life

Not always true as laptops are often used as desktop replacements. A reasonable life is fine for many.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28128
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:19 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

jema wrote:

what people NEED is a long battery life

Not always true as laptops are often used as desktop replacements. A reasonable life is fine for many.

I think I am allowed to generalise a little in a single sentence

and I think for those peope that need a notebook for what it actually represents e.g. mobile computer power, it is pretty true.
If a notebook is a simple desktop replacement, then batteries are a heavy waste of space.

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42207
Location: North Devon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:51 pm Post subject:

To generalise a little: Most computers are grossly over-specced for most users needs. The factors driving down the cost of hardware have permitted programmers to write ever bulkier material with little added functionality.
Until we bought the mac (which was in a large part an aesthetic decision) we did everything on a P400 based PC. If you don't manipulate graphics or music for a living you simply do not need the power which most modern PCs offer.
But if we're going to bring porn and MP3s to the developing world will thin clients do the job?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45445
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 5:56 pm Post subject:

sean wrote:

But if we're going to bring porn and MP3s to the developing world will thin clients do the job?

No probs with MP3s or porn, it's more bandwidth than processing power you need unless you're talking about content creation.

Treacodactyl
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Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:30 pm Post subject:

Just thinking through the laptops a little, the only need for their power from what I've seen is people playing DVDs, games etc on the way home from work! That's also the main need for a battery. Quite a few people with laptops use them for working at a desk in the office and then on a desk at home so there's little use for a battery or the charger apart from the UPS facility you get.

Has anyone else noticed some of the P4 processors only run at 50% capacity? Something to do with mutithreading (not sure if it's real or virtual) but it means a P4 3GHz spends the bulk of it's life only being a 1.5GHz chip. (Don't know much about this I just noticed it when investigating a problem one day).

As for the MP3 and porn is there a large call for this in the office?

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45445
Location: Essex

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:32 pm Post subject:

Treacodactyl wrote:

As for the MP3 and porn is there a large call for this in the office?

You never know, from my conversations with my nephew the intention is to facilitate the building of internet cafe's in developing countries that are cheap to set up and maintain.

Treacodactyl
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
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Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 6:43 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Treacodactyl wrote:

As for the MP3 and porn is there a large call for this in the office?

You never know, from my conversations with my nephew the intention is to facilitate the building of internet cafe's in developing countries that are cheap to set up and maintain.

Well porn has done wonders for the internet so it may help this idea.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28128
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 7:32 pm Post subject:
Just a little example on the lack of need for processor power. A lot of my week has been taken up, creating a new Linux server to act as a mirror for the web sites I maintain, as well as to use for browsing. In fact this post is being written on the new box via VNC from windows. The new box is running on a processor about half as fast as my old Linux server! and it really hardly matters at all.

trigfa

Joined: 06 Apr 2005
Posts: 189
Location: Llangernyw, North Wales

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:30 pm Post subject:
I still have a 486 running Debian sitting in the loft which acts as a mail server for the household. Until quite recently it also acted as a file server as well, until a mate in work donated an old pentium II. For lots of tasks you simply dont need the power as long as your not running 101 unneccesary daemons (or "services" in Windows speak )!

Jonnyboy

Joined: 29 Oct 2004
Posts: 23956
Location: under some rain.

Posted: Fri Apr 29, 05 9:38 pm Post subject:
Not convinced about thin clients at all, for a start it's complicated if not impossible hang a printer off the back of them, and if people want to run specific software it needs to be configured on the server first. They would be far more reliant on an infrastructure than a stand alone PC.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45445
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 7:17 am Post subject:

Jonnyboy wrote:

Not convinced about thin clients at all, for a start it's complicated if not impossible hang a printer off the back of them, and if people want to run specific software it needs to be configured on the server first.

They would be far more reliant on an infrastructure than a stand alone PC.

Yes, exactly the whole point. Nobody can install anytthing dodgy, networked printers are available to all users and make much more sense than hanging a printer off the back of a PC. I think they're great.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28128
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 7:52 am Post subject:

tahir wrote:

Jonnyboy wrote:

In a work place, the amount of time wasted by people farting about with PCs, doing things they should not, and then having to have someone fix it, is mind boggling

People don't seem to work on PCs, they play on PCs

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45445
Location: Essex

Posted: Sun May 01, 05 7:54 am Post subject:

jema wrote:

People don't seem to work on PCs, they play on PCs

Exactly, if we had PCs at work I'd spend all my time trying to fix things for people, the implementation of thin client was excellent for us.

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