RM relaunches Eee PC 900 as miniBook UK education computing specialist RM - the firm formerly known as Research Machines - has announced its version of the Asus Eee PC 900. It'll sell the machine to schools for a mere £285 for the Windows XP model. Dubbed the miniBook, the RM machine matches the spec of the Asus-sold model exactly: 8.9in, 1024 x 600 display; …
"That means automatically writing less data to the main drive to prevent undue wear on its write-limited memory cells."
Would that be the same type of memory cells which Vista's ReadyBoost feature uses for... er, constantly writing loads of data to? I need someone to clarify this for me. Are flash drives: -
1. great for applications that read and write lots of stuff, because they're very fast, or
2. terrible for applications that read and write lots of stuff, because they wear out really easily?
And if the answer is "both of the above", I can see that might be a problem.
"the RM machine matches the spec of the Asus-sold model exactly" - That's probably because it's the same machine. We bought some of the first RM miniBooks (Asus Eee PC 4G) and they're exactly the same as the Asus. RM seem to have abandoned their normal re-branding policy for laptops with these, as my miniBook has an Asus logo on the lid and came in an Asus box. The only RM branding anywhere was on the RM site and the receipt.
"That means automatically writing less data to the main drive to prevent undue wear on its write-limited memory cells."
They turned memory paging off then...
A sensible school will buy Acer Aspire Ones with Linux, and use it as the thin end of the wedge to push Microsoft out of the school. Now that ICT means 'using Office', OpenOffice will be fine for getting all your students A*s.
Paris, 'cos even she could get an A* these days.
So why does a company 'box shift' Asus Eee pc's (not even badged) that also sells windows based networks into schools and then includes in the price of the hardware an OS that cannot log into a Windows network domain (Xp home). I asked then this and they said you would have to add your own version of Xp pro to log into a domain but this would dramatically reduce the already small storage room and then of course you would have to pay for another Xp licence. Think I'll wait for the 901 based on the atom chip which by buying from a company who never claim anyway to 'add value' as RM does will no doubt be cheaper. Shame for them as we might want to buy 100+
It is widely accepted that the English word "data" in its computer sense is most commonly used as a mass noun (like "bread", "sand" or "money").
Part of the reason for this is that it is impossible to quantify a "datum" in computing terminology. Is it a bit, a nybble, a byte, a word, a float,... an ASCII character, a Unicode character, a character string.... It is each of these things and more, depending on the context.
Given the variability of the term, it is essentially meaningless. How can a word exist without meaning? So the word "datum" died, leaving "data" as an orphan. How can you have a plural without a corresponding singular? You can't -- and thus "data" became uncountable.
There are academic (non-computing) contexts where a "datum" still exists, and in such contexts "data" is treated as a plural, but these are rare and in a very restricted domain.
so the education authorities still aren't educated on OSes ? Do they realise they are playing into the Beast-of-Redmond's clammy hands by creating a generation of Windoze consumers?
still this is government , and I've long worked out that most of the people there couldn't survive outside of their cosetted existence.
I have to educate my children to the fact that there are other OSes than what is fed to them at school.
oh so much for the future , our Grandkids will all be sucking Bill Gates and Steve Bulmer's grandkids cocks FOR EVER !!
They normally really gouge schools as well. I wonder if they get a kickback from MS.
It is always the way, try and get them when they are young, sometimes worth taking a hit on it. There is a lock in effect for some people, that find it hard to break with what they are familiar with.
Still, we should be using Opensource software on all government systems by now, the stability alone is worth the switch over. It is not healthy to be dependent on just one company for basic computing needs, especially in the years ahead.
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