I’ve been doing a lot of talking about the coming information age and how it depends on access technology that is as cheap and easy to use as our cell phones (and applications of it that are as appealing as people find their cell phones). But I’ve been slow to mention the MIT Media Lab’s [...]
Posted December 4, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: $100 laptop, digital divide, hardware, information age, laptop, Mary Lou Jepsen, media lab, mit, mit media lab, portable, portable computing, Technology, ubicomp, ubiquitous computing. 2 Comments.
Via Gizmodo, we make money not art, and The Engineer: spray-on computers.
The idea is to develop computers about the size of a grain of sand (though they say a cubic millimeter here), give them sensors and networking capabilities, and completely change our notion of “computer.”
From The Engineer:
Each Speck will be autonomous, with its own captive, [...]
Posted October 27, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Technology. Tags: computational networks, computer, computers, computing, computing fabric, computing project, idea, information appliances, information processing, nano-computing, nanocomputing, networking capabilities, smart appliances, specknet, specknets, specks, spray, spray-on, spray-on computer, spray-on computing, sprayon, ubicomp, ubiquitous computing. Be the first one.
My week with the Pepper Pad is over, and the UPS van just drove off with it, but I’ve still got a lot to report.
My testing ran into problems when it turned out that the WiFi network in the library was on the fritz. I did some netstumbling today and found that only two APs [...]
Posted October 5, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: computer, fond farewell, good bye, internet access, pepper, pepper computer, pepper pad, portable computer, portable computing, post pc, post pc device, ubicomp, ubiquitous computing, ultra portable, web access, web device, web pad. 5 Comments.
The Pepper Pad (available at Amazon) has a very clean out of box experience. There’s nothing to assemble and no questions about what order to do things in. Just open, unwrap, plug in, startup.
I attempted running through the configuration in my office, but the WiFi propagation is very weak there and Pepper Pad couldn’t catch [...]
Posted September 30, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Technology. Tags: computer, internet access, pepper, pepper computer, pepper pad, portable computer, portable computing, post pc, post pc device, ubicomp, ubiquitous computing, ultraportable, web access, web device, web pad. 4 Comments.
The Pepper Pad’s technical details — a lightweight Linux powered device with an 8.4-inch SVGA touchscreen, Wi-Fi auto-configuration, Bluetooth device support, multi-gigabyte disk, full QWERTY thumb-keypad, stereo speakers, and more — are already well reported. But I’ve been arguing that attention to such details runs counter to the purpose and intended use of the device. [...]
Posted September 29, 2005, by Casey
Categories: Libraries & Networked Information, Technology. Tags: computer, internet access, pepper, pepper computer, pepper pad, portable computer, portable computing, post pc, post pc device, ubicomp, ubiquitous computing, ultraportable, web access, web device, web pad. 4 Comments.
