Michael Simpson's Blog
Posted by Michael Simpson
The OLPC, One Laptop Per Child, spent last week doing a test production run of the notebook they have designed that will, if all goes well, allow third world countries to buy laptops for $100 and give them to school children. This would allow them to keep pace, from a technological standpoint, with the rest of the world.
I've been following this story for several years, and have been quite impressed with the results. The systems feature a 366 MHz AMD Geode processor with 128 MB of RAM. For storage it has a 512 MB Flash unit. There are also four USB ports as well as a Wi-Fi chipset that is provided by Marvell.
Currently the price is expected to be about $130 each, but it is expected to drop to the promised $100 by 2008.
Articles | Discussions | Blog | Contact Me
Posted by Michael Simpson
Micro-Star International has recently unveiled its P6N Diamond and P6N SLI Platinum motherboards which support Intel's quad-core Core 2 Extreme QX6700. Obviously aimed at the high-end gaming segment, MSI has already introduced quad-core supporting motherboards, including its 975X Platinum PowerUp Edition, 965 Platinum, 965 Neo 2, G965MDH and Q965MDO.
This will be great news for gamers, who are chomping at the bit waiting for the chance to run World of Warcraft on a blazing fast system.
Posted by Michael Simpson
There is also the fact that sometimes you can't do things in the GUI that you can in the registry. The biggest thing about messing with the registry is to always do a backup before making any changes.
I've written up a number of registry hacks or tweaks and will continue to write more. If there is anything in particular you want ... let me know.
Articles | Discussions | Blog | Contact Me
Posted by Michael Simpson
I recently wrote an article about my concerns with moving to Vista as soon as it comes out. As the time gets closer and closer, I am wondering more and more what everyone is thinking.
I put up a poll to see what the consensus is. Will you go to Vista as soon as it comes out? Planning on buying a new computer and waiting until Vista comes out so you can get it? Or maybe planning on buying new but getting it with XP anyway?
Fill out the poll so I can get an idea of whether I need to start writing some articles about Vista.
Articles | Discussions | Blog | Contact Me
Posted by Michael Simpson
I was somewhat surprised by how Vista picked up all my devices. My wireless NIC needed drivers installed but everything else worked fine. In fact, if it wasn't for the ridiculous prices, I might be tempted to go ahead and get it.
However, even if everything else was fine Id have to be concerned by this article about the EULA and its affects on system builders.
Professionally I'm concerned by the way that Vista blurs the line between my computer, the network, and the internet. This isn't a problem for me personally. But I am concerned about end-users who aren't quite as technically savvy as most.
If you're using Windows Vista let me know what you think.
Articles | Discussions | Blog | Contact Me
