Would you believe that a base unit with a monitor can be sold for as little as $225? Although there is no mentioning of the O/S and software that is included, buyers can get it all for a mere pittance in India. There are some amazing offers in westernised countries as well. In the UK, for example, a Linux box can be as cheap as 140 pounds ($247) plus tax, albeit it does not include a monitor. From the article in the BBC:

India’s first low-cost personal computer has been launched in the Tamil Nadu state capital, Madras.

Designed by IT firm HCL Infosystems, it is priced at 9,990 rupees ($225) and includes all the basic features required for a first-time user.

There is no mentioning of which operating system is used; the acronym PC is no indicator either.

This picture was funnier when Windows Vista was still called Longhorn

t was roughly a decade ago when a mysterious journalism trend emerged. All of a sudden, in a matter of a few years, major newspapers began to migrate their content to the Internet and shield their on-line popularity. A frantic stampede — that was — to what would become the future of journalism. Editors came to realise that it was only a matter of time before readers would take advantage of technology. This new form of publication had very many conceivable advantages:

• Being able to isolate uninteresting bits from the unmissable (content tailoring)
• Ability to save article (electronic storage)
• Reduction in cost (physical properties)
• The ability to share articles with friends and colleagues (reproducibility)
• Being able to performs searches (indexing technology)

Whatever gains one can imagine, most likely computers will have them. So, paper was bound to become obsolete sooner or later.

Several years later, particularly in the beginning of this millennium, blogs (Web logs) began to emerge. Suddenly, people had easy access to powerful publication platforms. The growth of blogs in terms of number and amount of content was explosive and their extent soon became excessive. How could a mainstream newspaper keep up with blogs and attract the masses? Journalists became threatened. Later came he feeds frenzy, which unlike blogs, has not reached its anti-climax, yet. Soon enough, operating systems (as we know them) might be put aside in favour of on-line operating systems. So who will be the next victim if not Microsoft? And who will it be that inherits the Earth? Google and Yahoo are among the contenders. For Microsoft, who have made many enemies, the last resort has become software patents, which they are piling up like connonballs for application at the Patents Office.

Slow movement towards on-line data management has been well-comprehended by all fronts. Microsoft attempt to conquer the Net as they are investing a heavy load of resources to reach that goal. From this site alone, MSNBot fetched 13968 pages, trailing by just a decent margin behind Google with 20627 pages in the month of July. Without a doubt, Microsoft have gained plenty of bandwidth and computer power.

It was not long ago that Bill Gates gave his engineers just 100 days to steal Google’s idea of AJAX-enabled maps (satellite and hybrid maps too). In response to Mozilla Firefox, which kept Microsoft on their toes, a decision was make to update rusty Internet Explorer 6 and leap to Internet Explorer 7. Not surprisingly, many ideas were stolen from Firefox, which was considered the main danger at the time.

Later on, Microsoft decided to embed RSS support in the kernel of Windows Vista (formerly Longhorn). Again, this step was taken in order to compensate for the considerable lag behind some recent technologies. Gates et al. were then scheming to buy off popular bloggers — a shrewd idea due to general Microsoft disdain in popular and influential blogspheres. The main complaints of bloggers, along with some major voices in the media, was the lack of inter-operability, being proof that Microsoft are patronising the rest of the IT world with utter platform discrimination. They simply fail to internalise that it is nice to be important, but even more important to be nice (open).

intendo’s profits are down by nearly 80% so worries about Nintendo’s vocation begin to resurface. The giant game maker has high sentimental value to many, including myself. Above is a screenshot that I took weeks ago while playing the classis Mario series from Nintendo.

Returning to the dysphoric news:

Reuters Japan passes on word from Nintendo of a 78.5% reduction in operating profits for the quarter ending June 30. Speculation from the news service on the reason for the drop makes perfect sense – the GameCube doesn’t have enough exclusives, first-party and third-party, and sales of GBA SP and GameCube have been declining.

Female fan: “Oh, Bill, your floppy is so long”

hen there is nothing particularly interesting to post, the typical blogger will publish a photo. Shown above is Bill Gates posing for a teen magazine in 1985. The photo below is from WikiMedia.

“When nobody else is in the room, I sometimes get jiggy with it”

Picture from InfoWorld

rofessionals have cowardly made discouraging statements recently. They will have you believe that Palm is lagging behind. They will attempt to persuade you that the future of Palm is uncertain.

Nevertheless, based on recent statistics, it appears obvious what grabs the attention of the prospective customer. Note that the figure do not refer to ownership of handhelds, but the acquisition of new ones. One must remember that operating systems other than Palm OS and Windows CE exist.

Cited by: PalmAddict

An intriguing and exclusive article from PESN speaks of a 4-foot-diameter solar dish, which projects light onto 1000 square feet in buildings without harmful UV rays.

The system’s 48-inch primary mirror concentrates light into a secondary mirror, which strips away the infrared and ultraviolet components, and directs the visible light into the receiver.

…

The tracking system itself requires very little power to operate. It could be supported by a small solar cell – equivalent to a 9-volt battery (which would last about a week).

The product is expected to reach the market in 2007. The product will be of great interest to those who have read about the dangers of deprived exposure to sunlight.

ail archives organisation is a topic which I addressed quite recently. However, good inbox (recent incoming mail) management is the key to efficient and uninterrupted work. Merlin of 43Folders agrees, even though his preferences differ from mine.

Each e-mail message in your inbox demands your time and attention. Filters and rules are great for reducing some of that demand, shunting easily defined mail such as e-newsletters and personal notes to their appropriate folders…

I think the advice given in the article is valid, but mail managements depends greatly on the nature of your work and interests. For example, not all people subscribe to mailing lists or get involved in forums and newsgroups. Moreover, people get hugely varying amounts of spam. Some get none, some get a few per day and some people get many hundreds if not thousands a day. What works for the author of the article will work for many others, but not necessarily for everybody. It is still worth a read though.

Horde Web-based E-mail management (click image to view in full size)

My related write-ups on mail management:

• Local or Web-based E-mail
• Public Mail Accounts and Filtering
• Urgent Mail Account
• E-mail Address Disclosure
• Managing Large E-mail Quantities
• Solution to Junk Mail
• Managing E-mail on a Personal Domain